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THE 



mil 




ATER KAP 




Its Legends and Early Histopj, 



BY 



y^ A\e, 



L. W. BRODHEAD. 



Scenes must he beautiful which, daily viewed, 
Please daily, and whose novelty survives 
Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years. 

COWl'ER. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
SHE KM AN & CO., P KIN TEES. 

1870. 



r\5i 



Entered according to Act of Cougress, in the year 1870, 

Bt L. W. BRODHEAD, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



/y/^ 



o 



V 




PHILADELPHIA : 
CAXTON PRESS OF SHERMAN & CO. 



"^-^16.7^ 



PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The frequent demand for a book descrip- 
tive of the scenery and the places of interest 
about the Water Gap, has induced the prepara- 
tion of this little volume. 

The addition of some historical account of 
the place, historical notes, &c., to the object 
first contemplated, it is thought, will afford in- 
terest to a portion, at least, of its readers. 

The story of Lover's Leap is given to supply 
the numerous calls from the younger and more 
romantic portion of the visitors at the Water 
Gap for a recital of the legend connected with 
that place, and which could not always be satis- 
factorily rendered. It does not aspire to the 
dignity of an independent romance, and the 
introduction of more than the leading actors in 

( iii ) 



IV PREFACE. 

the story was purposely avoided, that too much 
space might not be occupied in illustrating cer- 
tain historical incidents, for which there is little 
authentic data ; but which are believed, how- 
ever, to contain some elements of truth. 

The beautiful Legend, written by Mrs. E. S. 
Swift, will be read with interest and pleasure. 
In granting permission for its publication in 
this connection, that lady says: "I love every 
foot of ground at the Water Gap ; to me it is 
full of pleasing memories. I suppose I shall 
find the place very much altered, — improved, 
people tell me ; but JN^ature has been so lavish 
in her loveliness there, I do not think it could 
bear improvement. I shall be glad to see your 
book published : it has long been wanted ; the 
Water Gap being, of late, as familiar as house- 
hold words." 

The hurried preparation of these pages has 
led to the contemplation of a larger volume, 
which may ere long appear, giving a more com- 
plete topographical and historical account of 
the Water Gap, together ^yith a History of the 
Upper Valley of the Delaware. 

It will be difficult for those Avho read what 
is here given, to divest their minds of the opin- 



PREFACE. Y 

ion that it is written in the interest of the Kit- 
ta tinny House. The relation the writer sustains 
to the place would make the inference natural, 
hence much delicacy is felt in placing it before 
the public ; but he hopes for a more liberal ap- 
preciation of his motives on the part of the 
intelligent class of readers who visit the Water 
Gap. 

He has only attempted to furnish that which 
those who visit the place constantly demand, 
and which he has failed in inducing those more 
experienced and more competent than himself 
to undertake. 

Less mention, however, is made of the House 
itself than one less interested would, perhaps, 
have given ; and as to the places described, 
they have but to be visited to justify all that 
is said in their praise. 

To the author this maiden effort has been 
but a labor of love, — the anticipation of gain 
in any form having no impulse, — as mo^t df the 
places described were the play-grounds of his 
boyhood, the rambles of his youth, and are the 
admiration of his manhood. 

Delaware Water Gap, 1867. 

1* 



VI PREFACE. 



SECOND EDITION. 

The second edition is now presented, revised 
and enlarged. 

The historical matter relating to the Upper 
Valley of the Delaware, proposed to be included 
in this edition, was found, on partial prepara- 
tion, to greatly exceed the limits contemplated, 
and will, therefore, be published in a separate 
volume. 

The narrative, " Lost on the Mountain," Avas 
written by request of friends of the lady in 
Philadelphia, and contains all the facts relating 
to that exciting local incident. 

The sketch of the Minisink and its early peo- 
ple, family genealogy, Indian antiquities, &c., 
here given will be understood as merely intro- 
ductory, with the hope that these subjects will 
awaken an interest in those who can assist the 
author with data for their successful completion. 

Delaware Water Gap, 1870. 



CONTENTS. 



0CKNKKY. 

PAGE 

Guide, xi 

Delaware Kiver, ........ 12 

Delaware Water Gap, ....... 16 

Kittatinny House, ........ 22 

Kebecca's Bath, 23 

Eureka Falls, t*3 

Moss Grotto, . .23 

Caldeno Creek, 28 

Cooper's Cliff, 30 

Table Eock, 31 

Moss Cataract, .33 

Diana's Bath, ......... 33 

Caldeno Falls, 33 

Lover's Leap, ......... 36 

The Hunter's Spring, 38 

Prospect Kock, . . . . . . . .39 

Summit of Mount Minsi, 40 

( vii ) 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



Sappers and Miners, .... 

The Gaps in the Mountain, . 

The Indian Interpreter (Tatamy),. 

The Kev. David Brainerd, 

Mount Tammany, or New Jersey Summit, 

Indian Chief, Tamanend, 

Sunset Hill, 

Mount Caroline, 

Laurel Hill, 

Blockhead Mountain, .... 
Lovers' Ketreat, or the Haunted Pine, . 

Martin's Eest, 

Church of the Mountain, 



PAGE 

41 
44 
44 
45 

48 
48 
50 
53 
54 
55 
56 
59 
59 



Cherry Valley and Fox Hill, 74 

Stroudsburg, ......... 75 

Cherry Valley and Crystal Hill, 76 

Buttermilk Falls, .77 

Marshall's Falls, 78 

Bushkill Falls, 79 

Falls of Winona, 83 

Transue's Knob, 84 

Castle Rock, . 85 

New Jersey Hills, 86 

Lake of the Mountain, 86 

Indian Relics, 87 

Indian Graves, II5 



CONTENTS. IX 



f^iEGENDS. 

PAGE 

"Winona ; or, the Story of Lover's Leap, . . . 125 
Legend of the Dehiware Water Gap, by Mrs. E, S. 

Swift, 158 

Passage of the Delaware througli the Blue Kidge, by 

Dr. William B. Dey, 190 

Lost on the Mountain, ....... 193 



w 



ISTOKICAL. 



Sketch of the Minisink and its early People, . . 214 

Early Settlements in the Minisink, .... 233 

Depui Family, 236 

Van Campen Family, 239 

Brodhead Family, 241 

Stroud Family, 250 

Early Settlements at the Delaware Water Gap, . . 254 

First Visitors, • 262 

Durham Boats, ........ 264 

Steamboat -'Alfred Thomas," 266 

First Telegram, 269 

Railroads, ......... 270 

Extract from a Letter of M. R. Hulce, Esq., . . 273 

Extract from a Letter of C. L, Pascal, Esq., . . 274 



GUIDE 

TO THE PLACES OF INTEREST. 



Jelatoare Mnkx ^ap. 

See from the river in boats, from the carriage-road, from 
Table Rock and Lover's Leap. 

Ilcbttta's ^atb — €«rtka J'alls — p[oss Cataract. 

Follow down the carriage-road in the direction of the Gap 
to the first creek. 

Coopr's Cliff— S;aWc |iock— §iana's ||atlj— Poss 
Cataract — Calbcno J^alls. 

Pass through the gate in front of the Hotel, ascend the first 
rise of ground, turn to the right, and take the direction 
of the White lines, wliich can be seen on every suitable 
rock and tree, 

ITohr's ITcap. 

Follow the direction of the Red lines till 3'ou intersect the 
Blue in the path leading to the Left. 

^Ije Juntcr's spring. 

Follow the Red lines till you intersect the White leading to 
the Bight. 

( ^i ) 



Xll GUIDE TO PLACES OF INTEREST. 



frospctt goch. 

Follow the Pwed lines till you intersect the Vellow leading to 
the Left. 



pointt IfttiTst, or the f cnusglbaniri Summit. 

Follow the Ked lines. 

^nnsct Jill. 

Follow the direction of the Yellow lines at the eastern end of 
the inclosiire in front of the Hotel. 

P^ottnt Caroline. 

Follow up the carriage-road in the direction of the village, 
and ascend the highest peak in the rear of the church. 

SanrtI fill, 
Is in front of Mount Caroline, and east of the School-house. 

poitnt iammang, or 'gtbs |erscn Summit. 

Ascend from the opposite bank of the river, below the Slate 
Factory. 

ITake of i^t glomttaiit. 

Take carriage to Shawnee ; ascend the mountain from the 
opposite bank of the river under direction of a guide. 

Jg^" Persons taking any of the carriage-rides without a 
driver, will obtain directions from the person having 
the carriages in charge. 

Jg®"- For a more full direction, see description of the places 
you wish to visit. 



THE 




elawai^e €Uatet^ 




SCENERY. 

Delaivare Hiver, 

Little rivulets dripping from rock to rock 
down the western slope of the Catskill Moun- 
tain form at its base two wald streamlets, too 
small and uncertain at first to assume "a 
local habitation and a name," but being fed 
by numberless little accessories, at length 
emerge the Mohaiolc and Popacton, — the west 
and east branches of the Delaware. Kejoic- 
ing in their new creation, and gaily dancing 
in the sunlight down declivities, forming 
here and there tumultuous cascades, or gur- 
gling through ravines, wander away from 
their beautiful mountain source. 

In parallel windings they flourish and 
grow self-sustaining and self-important, like 

2 



14 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

youth at their first departure from the pa- 
rental mansion. Away they glide through 
forest and hidden wilds, such as where the 
hart goeth " panting after the water brooks," 
and on, on, until the music of their cascades 
reverberated from the steep mountain-side is 
lost in the distance. A hundred miles away, 
like plighted lovers, they meet, embrace, and 
are commingled in one. 

From such a beautiful source and from 
such small beginnings, we have the noble 
old Delaware, the poetry of rivers, and the 
love and admiration of its '^ original people." 

The point of junction is near the north- 
east corner of Pennsylvania, and the united 
streams thereafter form its eastern boundary. 
The place of the union of these streams, in 
the language of the Indians, was beautifully 
significant. It was called by them SliehaiD- 
han, meaning " the wedding of the waters." 
At this point, after having wandered so far 
from its parent mountain, and, as if desirous 
of returning again for protection, the stream 
diverges in a southeasterly direction, and 
rapidly moving onward receives the waters 
of the Lackawaxen [Lecliauwek' sinlc) , whose 
wild ravines echo the songs of the merry 



DELAWARE RIVER. 15 

raftmen. Approaching the Blue Ridge at 
right angles it reaches it again at the junc- 
tion of the three States,** having journeyed 
in its wild rambles one hundred and fifty 
miles, yet being only half that distance from 
its source. Along the western base of the 
mountain it flows majestically onward, 
lighting up field and forest, and adding 
a charm to a hundred landscapes, diverg- 
ing from the " blue hills " at times to give 
our New Jersey neighbors a portion of the 
rich valley, and again washing their rocky 
base, and receiving the waters of the Bush- 
kill fresh from its little Niagara, and then 
Brodhead's and Marshall's Creeks (the pro- 
lific sources of the speckled trout), the un- 
wearied stream at length reaches the Water 
Gap to add the climax to its beautiful crea- 
tions. 

The forty miles of the course of this stream 

* Near Port Jervis. It was at this point a gentleman 
once asserted on a wager that he could prove to the satisfac- 
tion of all present, that he had been in Jive States on that 
day. It was easy to see how he could have been in Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, and New Jersey, but the other two were 
not so clear, till he explained that in the morning he had 
been in a state of shigle unblessedness, and was now in a state 
oi double felicity. 



16 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

along the base of the mountain from Port 
Jervis to this place, is unsurpassed in the 
variety and beauty of the j)ictures it pre- 
sents ; and taken in connection with the 
fine character of the roads, the numerous 
waterfalls adjacent, there is not perhaps a 
more desirable drive of the same extent 
along any river in the country. 

Delaware Water Gap. 

The great geological phenomenon bearing 
the above expressive though not very eupho- 
nious name, is one of the most striking scenes 
in our country, and is a subject upon which 
volumes might be written. The chain of 
mountains known in general terms as the 
Blue Ridge, ranging nearly parallel with the 
Atlantic coast, and having its rise in New 
Hampshire and terminating in the extreme 
Southern States, has, in each State through 
which it passes, some distinguishing feature, 
as the White Mountaias in New Hampshire, 
Green Mountains in Vermont, CatskiU in New 
York, Harjjer^s Ferry in Virginia, and the 
Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey. 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 17 

The waters of the Delaware at this point 
approach the mountain with a gentle cur- 
rent, and gracefully sweeping from the north 
toward the east, turn suddenly and pass 
through the Blue Ridge, cutting it to the 
base, while its ragged, sloping sides tower- 
ing up to an elevation of 1600 feet, frown 
down upon the river as it calmly pursues 
its course toward the ocean. 

Whether this immense chasm has been 
caused by one mighty eruption, or by a 
gradual yielding of stratum after stratum, 
by the immense pressure of the waters of a 
lake thousands of acres in area, down to the 
present bed of the river ; or by the active 
dissolution of the material upon which the 
foundation of the mountain rested, burying 
the whole mass deep in the gulf thus created, 
is of course a subject of mere conjecture, 
and can never be satisfactorily determined. 
The depth and solidity of the stratification 
on either side of the chasm would seem, 
however, to favor the first hypothesis. 

The evidences of the action of water on 
rocks hundreds of feet above the present 
level of the river-bed, and the masses of 
drift forming isolated hills and alluvial 

2^ 



18 . DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

banks, indicate lake-like repose in the coun- 
try now drained by the tributaries of the 
stream above the great gate in the moun- 
tain barrier. 

The Indian name of Minismk, — meaning 
'' the water is gone," — given by the aborigi- 
nes to the level country north of the Gap, 
and extending up the river many miles, 
would seem to indicate some tradition con- 
firming the theory of a lake at some remote 
period of time. 

The mass of matter thrown out from this 
chasm must have deluged the whole country 
south of the "Gap" for many miles in ex- 
tent; but we shall, perhaps, never find a 
Htrculaneum or a Pompeii buried beneath 
the accumulated debris, although some fu- 
ture BoacJier de Perthes, delving deep in the 
bowels of the earth for evidences of pre-his- 
toric man, may here find some relic of the 
stone age, very like those now so plentifully 
found upon the surface. 

The two following paragraphs, giving an 
estimate of the probable amount of matter 
thrown out of the opening forming the 
" Gap," &c., are extracts from a letter writ- 
ten by the author of this book, some years 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 19 

ago, for the New York Sun., portions of which 
were afterward published in a History of 
Northampton and Monroe Counties : 

"Estimating the height of the mountain 
on either side at 1600 feet, the width of the 
space or distance between the mountains at 
half their height to be 1000 feet, the whole 
distance through at one mile, would give 
the enormous amount of 8,451,600,000 cubic 
feet, a sufficiency of matter to overwhelm a 
township of ordinary size to the depth of 
five feet. 

"Here there has been a convulsion that 
must have shaken the earth to the very centre^ 
and the ' elements to give signs that all was 
lost.' But He who governs the world and 
has all things at His command ; He w ho 
holds the globe by the might of His power, 
can remove the mountains from their foun- 
dations and bury them in the deep, and the 
great machinery of the universe continue to 
move and lose none of its functions." 

The w^onderful phenomena of nature wit- 
nessed in every clime, setting at defiance all 
human theories and human research, seem 
to exist only to impress us with the majesty 
of Omnipotence, and our own fallible insuf- 



20 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

ficiencv ; and the o;reat o^eolosrical transfer- 
mations that have taken place in the pri- 
mary condition of the earth's surface, and 
the constant mutations still continuing, to- 
gether with our own wasting lives, admonish 
us of the instability of all sublunary things, 
and that ere long, 

" Like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the i^orgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind." 

The Delaware Water Gap may have been 
so planned from creation. We are told in 
the beautiful language of inspiration : tljat, 
" He putteth forth his hand upon the rocks, 
He overturneth the mountains by the roots, 
He cutteth out rivers among the rocks, and 
His eyQ seeth QVQry precious thing." 

The Gap should be seen from the river, 
from Table Rock, Lover\s Leap, and from the 
carriacie-road. Taking a small boat, at the 
foot of the cliff on which the hotel is situ- 
ated, and rowing down over the quiet waters, 
affords, perhaps, the most impressive view, 
such as you will ever remember with pleas- 
ure. You can better realize the height of 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 21 

the mountain, the width of the chasm, the 
serpentine course of the river, and the force 
required to produce the dislocation. 

The Gap is also seen to good advantage 
by walking down the carriage-road. By con- 
tinuing the walk to the Point of Rocks, you 
have the view from a variety of aspects, 
each of which is a study, and must give in- 
terest and pleasure to the commonest percep- 
tions. To the geologist and the botanist, 
this is a fine field for the exercise of either 
talent. On the return, you have a view up 
the Delaware, which, though of an entirely 
different cliaracter, is a pleasing and inter- 
esting one. 

Few persons from the cities see the Water 
Gap in winter, and, therefore, lose some of 
the grandest scenes the place afibrds. The 
snows of the entire season accumulate to 
the depth of several feet on the top and 
sides of the mountain, appearing like an 
immense white curtain studded with clumps 
of evergreen trees, suspended from the sum- 
mit of the Pennsylvania Mountain, and 
reachinji to its base, of the dimensions of 
1600 feet in height by one mile in length, 
as seen from the hotel. The ice in the Gap 



22 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

acquires great solidity and thickness, and 
presents an impenetrable barrier to that 
which is brought down from the upper 
waters, by the first winter freshets. It ac- 
cumuhites here in immense bodies, and is 
piled up in confused masses, as high as the 
grading of the railroad, unable to force the 
solid masonry of winter in the narrow gorge 
between the mountains. It is not uncom- 
mon to see these broken cakes of ice piled 
up to the height of twenty feet above the 
water, some pieces standing upright from 
ten to fifteen feet above the general mass. 
This condition continues until the return 
of warmer weather, when the gateway is 
forced, and the whole body passes out with 
a crashing sound, distinctly heard at the 
hotel. 

Kittatinny Souse, 

On the side of the Pennsylvania Moun- 
tain is a series of plateaux or geological 
steps, and on the first of these, at an eleva- 
tion of 180 feet above the river, stands the 
Kittatinny House. The spot commands a 
fine view of the windings of the river, and 
the surrounding mountains and hills ; but 
the view of the Gap itself is incomplete, 



KITTATINNY HOUSE REBECCa'S BATII. 23 

being obstructed, at tbis point, by '^ Block- 
head " Mountain, which, however, is over- 
looked by the views from other points higher 
up the side of the mountain. The situation 
is well chosen, and has the benefit of every 
breeze. The hotel buildings are large, though 
not sufficiently so to accommodate the annu- 
ally increasing number of visitors, and more 
extensive accommodations are in contem- 
plation. The places of interest, hereinafter 
to be described, are mostly in the immediate 
vicinity of the hotel. There are several 
boarding-houses, distant from half a mile to 
three miles from the Kittatinny House, viz. : 
" Brainerd House," by Thomas Brodhead ; 
'' Lenape House," by A. B. Burrell ; '^ Glen- 
wood House," by Samuel Alsop ; " River 
Farm House," by Evan T. Croasdale; '^ Ana- 
loming House," by James Bell ; and " High- 
land Dale House," by Charles Foulk ; also 
several houses at Stroudsburg, a pleasant 
town four miles distant. 

Mebecca^s Bath — Barelia Falls — Moss 

Grotto, 

On the road, about halfway between the 
hotel and the Point of Rocks, is the Echo. 



24 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

The return of the voice from the opposite 
mountain in New Jersey is well defined at 
the parapet which borders the road. Here 
you cross a little stream, now perhaps very 
modest, gentle, and almost noiseless ; yet so 
sparkling and bewitching, half hidden under 
the canopy of greenwood, and at times dis- 
appearing between the moss-covered rocks, 
that you almost fear, in its wild rambles, 
such '^a thing of beauty" cannot be '^a joy 
forever." But it murmurs on, in summer's 
heat and winter's cold; more voluminous at 
times, but never less beautiful. So coy, so 
fickle, and yet so lovely and fascinating, how 
very apt are we to compare it to one, in 
our mind, of the lovelier part of our crea- 
tion. And it has, too, its seasons of frolic 
and gaj^ety. Now, whilst I write, " winter's 
icy chains have bound it," and the deep 
snows have borne down the branches of the 
trees that skirt its way, till they dip low in 
the stream, and are festooned with icy pearls 
that glitter in the sunlight, and almost make 
you sad to think they cannot endure ; but a 
few warm sunny days " unbinds the silver 
rill," and behold the modest little rivulet 



Rebecca's bath. 25 

with the proportions and the roar of a cata- 
ract ! 

Up this ravine are located " Rebecca's 
Bath," '^ Eureka Falls," and " Moss Grotto." 
The stream has its rise high up the side of 
the mountain, at " The Hunter's Spring," 
and the rays of the sun are shut out for the 
whole distance, causing the growth of mosses 
and ferns to be uncommonly beautiful, and 
the strong current of air following down the 
course of the stream, makes the summer 
days at Eureha like those of autumn else- 
where. 

The railroad, though a great improvement 
over the old method of reaching the Water 
Gap by stage-coach, has nevertheless made 
some innovations upon the primitive beauty 
of the place, that are not pleasant to con- 
template; besides destroying that charming 
w^alk once studded with sycamores, free from 
underbrush and turfed with green, situated 
between the base of the cliff on which the 
hotel rests and the river, which the earlier 
visitors delighted in calling " Love Lane," 
it has forced the carriage-road so far up the 
ravine, at Rebecca's Bath, as to destroy much 
of its former beauty, and caused the denio- 

3 



26 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

lition of many grand old trees below it, and 
all alonsr the river-bank, under whose shelter 
passed the carriage-road of former days. 

The following accomit of the exploration 
of these jDlaces was written by the late la- 
mented W. Arthur Jackson in the Hotel 
Register, in 1852. "The Bridge of /Sighs,'' 
alluded to in this record, heaved its last 
expiring breath at the first sight of the Irish- 
man with his pickaxe and shovel. The place 
was destroyed in the construction of the pres- 
ent carriage-road: 

" Notice to Visitors. 

" Monroe Couniy, ss. 

" Be it remembered that on the twenty- 
seventh day of August, A.D. 1852, the fol- 
lowing named persons, to wit : Miss K. D. 
Smith, Miss Elizabeth Nixon, Miss Lizzie 
Nixon, Mr. F. C. Foster, Mr. Wm. S. Baker, 
and Mr. W. A. Jackson, all of the City of 
Philadelphia, or now, or late there residing, 
did with great toil, labor, icorh, and diligence, 
discover, lay out, survey, and explore, a certain 
waterfall, cascade, cataract, stream, basin, 
and grotto, being and lying within the bounds 
of the county aforesaid, and with divers in 



NOTICE TO VISITORS. 27 

struments and tools, to wit: one dull axe, one 
sharp hatchet, two jack-knives, and one pine 
tree, did thereto, and thereabout, build, con- 
struct, and open a certain path or public 
highway, for the use and benefit of all foot 
passengers and pedestrians forever; and did, 
upon and over the said stream, erect a cer- 
tain bridge or causeway of rocks ; and then 
and there, by virtue of the powers, privileges, 
and immunities in them as discoverers of 
the said location, by the laws of nations 
vested, did thereto assign the following 
names, to wit : to the said falls, the name of 
Eureha Falls ; to the said bridge of rocks, 
the name of The Bridge of Sighs; to the said 
bath or basin, the name of Rebecca's Bath ; 
and to the said grotto, the name of 3foss 
Grotto. 

" And moreover, at the same time and 
place above mentioned, it was, by the said 
parties then and there assembled, unanim- 
ously resolved and determined that the said 
Falls, Bath, Grotto, and Bridge, so as afore- 
said more particularly named and described, 
were, and the same are pronounced and de- 
creed, and shall ever hereafter be deemed 
and taken to be, in all respects, superior to 



28 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

all other Falls, Baths, Bridges, and Grottos 
whatsoever and wheresoever situated within 
ten miles circular of the home and habita- 
tion of William A. Brodhead, Proprietor of 
the House commonly known as the Kitta- 
tinny House. 

" Witness the hands and seals of the said 
parties hereunto subscribed, the day and 
year last aforesaid. 

Miss R. D. Smith, [l. s.] 
Miss Nixon, [l. s.] 

Miss Lizzie Nixon, [l. s.] 
Frank C. Foster, [l. s.] 
W. Arthur Jackson, [l. s.] 
Wm. S. Baker, [l. s.] " 

Under this, some justly complaining indi- 
vidual has written the following : 

" The Tails may have their name from yon, 
And be worthy of survey ; 
But yet, we think, 'tis justly due 
To point us out the way." 

Caldeno Creek. 

Caldeno Creek has its rise high up the 
side of Mount Minsi. After tumbling down 
its rocky precipices, it at length finds its 



CALDENO CREEK. 29 

way into the valley, and after gladdening 
the inmates of two or three scattered farm- 
houses, runs close up to the ruins of an old 
saw-mill, still offering to render willing ser- 
vice as of yore, when it turned its limpid 
summersaults around the giddy wheel, and 
reminding its old companion of the lively 
times they once enjoyed together; but the old 
mill being too dilapidated to respond, the 
stream heaves a sigh over departed great- 
ness, and passes on, meandering through 
a meadow, dallying in little eddies to give 
the trout a chance to bask in the sunshine, 
and ao'ain hides itself in the thick woods. 
Cooled and purified it emerges again at Moss 
Cataract, where, hesitating a moment on the 
brink, it dashes away over its mossy bed, 
fills Diana's bath* afresh, gives a leap over 
the falls of its own name, and hastens on to 
the Kittatinny to welcome the newly arrived 
guest, and after performing its office in the 
culinary department, takes a final leap of a 
hundred feet into the river. 



■^ This place has been generally known as " Ve^ins's Batli.," 
but the original and more appropriate name is Diana^ and 
as such will hereafter be known. 



30 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



Coojjet'^s Cliff. 

For a morning, or after dinner walk, you 
pass through the gate in front of the hotel, 
and follow up Caldeno Creek, and notice as 
your guide the icliite Unes on every suitable 
rock and tree. A walk of a few minutes 
along the stream brings you to the third 
geological step, to witness the surrounding 
hills mirrored in the bosom of a miniature 
lake, partly natural and partly artificial, 
known as '* Lake Lenape." Turning from 
the lake to the left, still following the white 
lines, along a well-defined road, a distance 
of about one hundred yards, you. observe a 
path to the right leaving yours at an acute 
angle, as if receding, only however to make 
the zigzag course up the precipitous eminence 
more easy of ascent. Follow this path and 
do not say it looks too tiresome, but save 
your breath till you reach " Cooper's Cliff," 
for wdien you are once there, you will have 
only enough left to exclaim, " How beau- 
tiful !" 



TABLE ROCK. 31 



Table Hoch, 



This is the fourth of the series of geo- 
logical steps, or rather it is the commence- 
ment of an extended plateau of nearly hori- 
zontal rock, dipping slightly to the north- 
west, and composed of red shale, not inaptly 
called " Table Rock," and reaching for sev- 
eral miles along the base of Mount Minsi, 
cut in twain by the passage of Caldeno 
Creek at Moss Cataract. Cooper's Cliif is 
about three hundred feet in elevation above 
the hotel, and five hundred feet above the 
river. You will not be in a hurry to leave 
this spot. Up the river the view is varied 
and beautiful. The sweeping curve of the 
mountain; the green fields cultivated on the 
sides of the corresponding hills ; the islands, 
and the river so closely hemmed in by hill 
and mountain as to resemble a lake, make 
altogether a picture of rare beauty. The 
most distant of these clearings, and covering 
the summit of Shawnee Hill, is Transue's 
Knob. Looking south, you have a fine, 
though incomplete view of tVie Gap, as the in- 
evitable Blockhead Mountain still obstructs 
the view. Continue on the eastern edge 



32 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

^of this plateau, foll(3wing the white lines, as 
before indicated, and a walk of a few hun- 
dred yards over a mossy bed, brings 3-ou to 
that portion of Table Rock commanding a 
favorite view of the Gap. 

The whole scene about this spot is pictur- 
esque. The confused mixture of forest and 
hills and cultivated land below the cliff on 
which you stand, form a beautiful foreground 
to the finely-developed proportions of the 
gorge in the distant mountain. The tall 
trees at the base of the cliff present no ob- 
struction to the view, being far beneath the 
elevation on which you stand. The quiet 
little meadow looks as though it had been 
brought hither, and not made from the clear- 
ings of the forest surrounding it. It had not 
always this tame appearance, however; not 
many years ago it was a dense thicket, so 
filled with trees and wild bramble as to be 
almost impenetrable, and was a fixmous re- 
sort for catamount, and other wild animals 
then infesting the neighborhood. The father 
of the writer once killed at this place a cata- 
mount of unusual size and ferocity. Being 
armed with only a small hand axe, and ac- 
companied by his dog, the latter was attacked 



MOSS CATARACT CALDENO FALLS. 33 

and soon laid prostrate. Just as the beast 
was springing forward, the axe was thrown 
with such force and precision as to disable 
him, so that he was easily dis23atched with 
a club. 



Moss Cataract — Diana^s Bath — Caldeno 

Falls, 

A few hundred yards further on in the 
same general direction, and guided by the 
white lines, will bring you again to Caldeno 
Creek, — wilder now than when you last saw 
it near the hotel, because farilier in the woods, 
and livelier because it has moi^e I'oom to play. 
When you are fairly down by the stream, 
if you had not seen the well-worn path lead- 
ing to it, you would almost undertake to say 
no one had ever been here before you ; so 
untouched is this picture by the hand of man, 
so perfectly is the whole in keeping with the 
harmony of nature. Moss Cataract, Diana's 
Bath, and Caldeno Falls, are all found in 
this wild ravine, and near each other. 

Moss Cataract is a slide, or rather a tum- 
ble which the stream indulges in, of about 



34 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

a hundred feet in length, down the slope of 
Table Rock, at an angle of about fortj-five 
degrees. This smooth rocky bed is covered 
with a thick green moss, not so abundant 
now as formerly, as frequent depredations 
are committed upon it by its fair visitors. 
The ravine is hemmed in by a thick growth 
of rhododendrons, and beyond these by tall 
trees, so that the sun never shines upon 
Diana either in her morning, evening, or 
noonday ablutions. 

In the centre of this slide, nature has 
carved out of the solid rock* this little bashi 
for her favorite goddess. Was ever nymph 
so honored? ''You feel like taking a bath 
yourself?" Don't you do it. Diana's ret- 
inue of nymphs — whom you know were all 
sworn to celibacy, and by this time are very 
ancient, and perhaps surly maidens, may be 
secreted in the thick wood, keeping watch 
over the sacred precincts, with bow ready 
drawn, to execute the full measure of their 
wrath against you for such a desecration. 

* This basin has somewhat the appearance of having been 
made by the hands of men, but auch is not the case. It is 
known to have existed in its present form, long beft)re the 
place was resorted to by visitors from the city. 



MOSS CATARACT — CALDENO FALLS. 35 

Caldeno Falls makes the third of these 
gems of the romantic. The Falls are not 
like those of Niagara — not quite so miicli. 
And this reminds me of an equally profound 
remark of a lady traveller : '' What a most 
wonderful place would be the Delaware 
Water Gap, if Niagara Falls ivere hereP 

Caldeno received its title in 1851, by 
using syllables from the names of the three 
following gentlemen, who then visited it : 

C. L. Pas-cal 

C. S. Og-den 
Jos. McD o-ud.* 

From a spot so entirely secluded, so cool 
and pleasant, and so picturesque, you part 
with reluctance. You can return by the path 
from the Falls, and reach Table Rock at a 
lower point than that by which you entered 
this place, and can vary your route home by 
going directly across Table Rock, descend 
the cliif by an easy grade, and take the road 
through the little meadow, which leads you 
direct to the Kittatinny House. 

* See letter from Mr. C L. Pascal, at end of book. 



3G DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



Lover^s Leap. 

Leaving the hotel in the same direction 
as in the route to Caldeno Falls, and after 
ascending the first rise in front by Caldeno 
Creek, you turn to the left, and observe the 
stones and trees in this direction marked 
Red. You enter the woods in the rear of 
the bowling saloon, by an open road, and 
after a short but precipitous ascent, you 
gain the second elevation, and intersect a 
w^agon road. This is not a Jdghway in the 
general acceptation of the word, but in gain- 
ing some of the elevations reached by it, you 
will think it certainly entitled to that ap- 
pellation. You have now a pleasant level 
walk of some distance, sheltered from the 
rajs of the sun by tall trees, and skirted by 
a thick growth of laurel and rhododendron. 
Just before entering the little meadow seen 
from Table Rock, you pass the Cottage 
cVAfricames. Proceeding through the mea- 
dow, you gain another elevation, and have 
another level walk of some distance, shel- 
tered and skirted as before, until you reach 
the path to the left, leading to " Lover's 



lover's leap. 37 

Leap," marked at the entrance with blue. 
Besides the romance connected with the 
spot, you will pronounce Lover's Leap worthy 
of more than one visit. The view of the Gap 
from this point differs from any you have 
witnessed, and is the place selected hy artists 
as affording the finest picture. That pecu- 
liar sweep in the river is seen to great ad- 
vantage, as well as the corresponding curve 
in the mountain on the Pennsylvania side. 
Could ^' Winona," the Indian Princess^ who, 
tradition says, once stood where we are now 
standing, have witnessed the train of cars as 
it emerges from behind the mountain in the 
Gap, she would readily have imagined it a 
messenger of destruction from some cavern- 
ous vault — an infernal region — deep in the 
bowels of the mountain, and fired up by the 
fiends inhabiting the dismal abode, and that 
it had been sent forth to devastate and de- 
populate the earth's surface. 

It will be perceived that the spot selected 
by Winona for the execution of the fatal 
" leap," is not so favorable as some others 
near, as for instance. Prospect Rock; but as 
Winona, being the most interested party, 
saw fit — perhaps in her great haste, — to im- 

4 



38 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

mortalize the place, we have no discretion 
in the matter. But more of Winona here- 
after. We will now continue our rambles, 
and have the story of Lover's Leap when 
we have finished them. 



The Hunter^s Spring, 

You will now retrace the pathway from 
Lover's Leap to the point of intersection 
with the road, and follow the red lines, A 
walk of half a mile brings you opposite 
"The Hunter's Spring." Now follow the 
white lines on a path leading to the right, 
and in a few rods' w^alk from the road, you 
reach this wild secluded spot, where many 
a "Lenape" huntsman, as well as those of 
modern times have been refreshed, and 
have lain in wait for the deer as they came 
panting for the cooling waters. The Hun- 
ter's Spring is the source of the rivulet that 
has its turbulent course down the mountain 
to the river, and which gives to the roman- 
tic ravine its life and beauty. 



PROSPECT ROCK. 39 



Prospect Mock. 



At the road opposite the Hunter's Spring 
you take the direction of the 7'ed lines, as 
before, and enter the first path bearing to 
the left, and observe the yelloio lines indi- 
cating the direction to Prospect Rock^ which 
is gained by a pretty steep but not difficult 
walk of about four hundred yards. This 
bare platform, though still much below the 
summit of the Blue Ridge, of which it is a 
plication, enables the visitor to enjoy one of 
the finest views of the Delaware. The pros- 
pect up the river extends beyond the islands 
to the distant hills, and the mountain, 
through which the river winds its devious 
way, and then glides smoothly along the 
base of the almost perpendicular cliff from 
which you are gazing. 

In the middle ground of this scene stands 
the Hotel and its surroundings, apparently 
as much below as beyond you. 

The guests of the house remaining behind, 
are distinctly seen from the river balcony, 
waving signals in response to j^ours indica- 
ting your safe arrival at Prospect Rock. 



40 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

SuiiiTtiit of 3Iount Minsi. 

After you have sufficiently rested at Pros- 
pect Rock, j)roceed in the direction of the 
red lines, and do not be persuaded that the 
ascent to the Summit is too difficult. Hun- 
dreds of ladies and gentlemen have gone 
before you, and few have regretted the un- 
dertaking. 

The journey is somewhat tiresome, and 
at places a little difficult; but, by resting 
occasionally, it can be overcome without 
great fatigue. The distance to the Summit 
is about one mile from Prospect Rock, and 
three miles from the Hotel. 

This portion of the Kittatinny is named 
" Mount Minsi," from a particular branch of 
the Lenape Indians inhabiting the "Mini- 
sink country" (valley of the Delaware, north 
of the mountain). It is difficult to do full 
justice to a description of this view. It 
must be seen to be a23preciated. You over- 
look an extent of country to the south as 
far as the eye can reach, a scene composed 
of mountains and hills in New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania, villages and farm-houses, cul- 
tivated fields, groves of woodland, and prim- 



SAPPERS AND MINERS. 41 

itive forests ; the river in its sinuous journey 
filling up the picture. 

Sappers and 3Iiners, 

The Summit is also known as '' Sappers' 
View," so named by a party of gentlemen 
organized many years ago under the title of 
'' Sappers and Miners," and who until the 
last year or two, made the annual ascent to 
the "Summit/' placing the dear old flag on 
the hightest tree to be seen from the Hotel, 
as well as one on the Summit. The view 
on the north side of the mountain is called 
'' Miners' View." The object of the organi- 
zation was primarily to open up some places 
of interest, not before easily accessible ; and 
to honor " The Flag," by displaying its folds 
from the highest tree on the most elevated 
peak of the Kittatinny. The annual gath- 
ering increased in numbers and in interest, 
and the result has been, that under the pro- 
tection of the Sappers and Miners, hundreds 
of ladies and gentlemen have visited '^ Mount 
Minsi," who would otherwise not have un- 
dertaken the journey, and thereby missed 
one of the finest views in the country. 

4* 



42 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Of the first organization we have no rec- 
ord. The first appearing on the Hotel 
Register is in 1858. Previous to this, it 
consisted of some eight or ten members, but 
when the last annual ascent was made, the 
number present had increased to seventy- 
five. The officers^ from first to last, ranking 
from general to liigli private in the military 
list; and from "Historiographer" to "Pio- 
neer" on the civil list^ number about one 
hundred. 

A sufficient number of ladies accompany- 
ing the expedition, usually remain with the 
commissary at the Hunter's Spring, to have 
the dinner, to be partaken of there, arranged 
in a manner suitable to this important an- 
niversary, and in time for the return of the 
main party from the Summit. 

After the repast, an hour or two is spent 
in patriotic speeches and songs, when the 
annual election of officers, presenting of 
badges, &c., take place. 

The following is the list of officers who 
have at one time or another served in the 
organization, excepting those whose initials 
merely are given : 



SAPPERS AND MINERS. 



43 



Gen. J. M. Vance, 

■William J. McElroy, 

P. Gulager, 

John Siner, 

J. K. Chandler, 

Kobert Staley, 

J. R. Field, 

Morton McMichael, Jr., 

S. M. Lewis, 

A. Engle, 

Philip H. White, 

W. R. Overman, 

H. S. Davis, 

A. M. Burton, 

E. H. Saunders, 
J. Bassett, Jr., 
George H. Brodhead, 
"W. H. Eisenbrey, 
W. B. Knowles, 

A. B Burrell, 
William Murphey, 
C. A. Jenks, 
L. M. Bond, Jr., 
M. Abbott, 

F. Maben, 

H. B. Benners, 
R. Dubois, 
J. Dubois, 
Mr. Lee, 
W. H. Davis, 
William Field, 
Samuel Williams, 
Rev. Mr. Wall, 
Mr. Clarke, 
W. M. Hodges, 
M-. Poillion, 

G. Baker, 

William Leveridge, 
C. D'Invillieri5, 



J. D. Orton, 

Dr. Bond, 

Dr. Allen, 

Rev. Mr. Edwards, 

E. M. Benson, 
Thomas E. Bacon, 
William McMichael, 
L. Godey, 

G. W. Russell, 
G. L. Harrison, 

F. A. Drexel, 
P. Ludlam, 
J. Ogden, 

J. S. Taylor, 

Arthur Pike, 

Edward L. Brodhead, 

Jos. Wayne, 

Loring Andrews, Jr., 

M. Sommerville, 

L. C. Simon, 

T. B. Belfield, 

David Birch, 

A. A. Hurley, 

H. R. Raiguel, 

S. B. Ely, 

S. A. Stearns, 

Rev. Mr. Cain, 

S. P. Godwin, 

H. Kershaw, 

F. C. Hunnis, 

H. Heberton, 

M. Nagle, 

Mr. Budd, 

Dr. Dunscomb, 

M. Masters, 

Thomas McLean, 

William McDaniels, 

Dr. Ellis, 

Joseph Siner. 



44 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



The Rebellion interrupted somewhat the 
regular gathering of this ancient and honor- 
able organization ; and some of the young 
gentlemen who saluted our national emblem 
on the heights of Mount Minsi, have since 
honored themselves in its defence against 
rebels and traitors. 



Gaps in the Kittatlmiy 3Iouiitain. 

There are five depressions in the moun- 
tain, called " Gaps," between the Delaware 
Water Gap and the Lehigh Water Gap, over 
which wagon-roads pass, and from all of 
which fine views of the country on both 
sides of the mountain are to be had, viz. : 
Tatamy's Gap, Fox Gap, Wind Gap, Smith's 
Gap, and Little Gap, and distant from the 
DeLaware Water Gap, respectively, in the 
order named: 2i miles, 5 miles, 11 miles, 
18 miles, 23 miles; and the Lehigh Water 
Gap, 29 miles. This is estimating in a di- 
rect line on the mountain from one Gap to 
the other. Tatamy's Gap was named after 
the Indian family of Tatamy's living south 
of the mountain. Moses Funda Tatamy or 



GAPS IN THE KITTATINNY MOUNTAIN. 45 

Tetamy, was an interpreter for the Rev. John 
Brainerd, the faithful and zealous missionary 
among the Indians.* 

The late M. S. Henry, in a letter to Dr. 
Brainerd, author of Life of John Brainerd, 
says : " The path or road over which Mr. 
Brainerd passed was the general thorough- 
fare from Philadelphia to Albany, the near- 
est route between those cities, and much 
frequented by travellers. The path {road, 
'the old mine road '), commenced at or near 
Kingston, thence up the Esopus Creek, and 
down the Mackemack (Neversink) Creek to 
the river Delaware, which it crossed seven 
miles above Milford, in Pike County, Pa, 
and continued westwardly along the Blue 
Mountain to near the Delaware Water Gap, 
thence to the Lehigh Water Gap (through 
Cherry Valley), and thence in a nearly 
southwardly course to Philadelphia." 

Brainerd had a missionary station at what 



* Brainerd visited the Indians in the Minisink in 1743, 
and, at that time, none of the " Gaps " appear to have been 
considered passable by men on horseback, excepting the 
Lehigh Gap, and he went the whole distance of Cherry Val- 
ley (30 miles) to reach that point on his way to the " Forks," 
where Easton now stands. 



46 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

is now known as " Allen's Ferry," seven 
miles below the Gap on the Delaware. The 
Indian town there was called " Sakanwa- 
tung," meaning " the mouth of a creek where 
some one resides." There was another In- 
dian town, called ^'Clistowacki," meaning 
" fine land," where Brainerd built a cottage 
and lived for a time. It was situated near 
" the three brick churches," in Mount Bethel 
township, near the residence of Mr. Baker, 
and fifteen miles south of the Delaware Wa- 
ter Gap. A party of ladies and gentlemen, 
with the writer, visited the place last au- 
tumn, and obtained information relating to 
it from persons living there; and in the sur- 
rounding fields picked up a number of Indian 
relics of the stone age. The Indian burial- 
ground is near one of the churches. 

I have before me an article from the 
'^ Easton Journal," giving an account of the 
closing career of " Tattamy Tundy " (a con- 
fusion of names, meaning, no doubt, Moses 
Funda Tatamy), an extract from which is 
as follows : 

" When the Mohicans set out on their 
pilgrimage towards the setting of the sun, 
a lone warrior lingered behind. His aifec- 



GAPS IN THE KITTATINNY MOUNTAIN. 47 

tions were so riveted to the land of his 
nativity that he found it utterly impossible 
to abandon it. He resolved to remain : 
' The last rose of summer, left blooming 
alone.' The proprietaries, or their agents, 
probably operated upon by a sense of the 
injustice they had done his tribe, suffered 
him to occupy a favorite spot on the Lehic- 
ton Creek, near the present village of Stock- 
ertown. Here he erected his wigwam, and 
for many years after the departure of his 
tribe, Tattamy Tundy might be seen steal- 
ing along the banks of the Lehicton, or sit- 
ting before his wigwam and humming the 
wild war-songs of his ancestors. 

" At the breaking out of the Revolution- 
ary War, the hostile Indians made frequent 
inroads upon the frontier settlements, and a 
change of residence was deemed necessary 
to secure the personal safety of Tattamy. 
He was removed to French town, on the 
Delaware. There he was permitted to oc- 
cupy a small tract of land, and there he 
yielded up his spirit, near the close of the 
Revolutionary War." 

Heckewelder speaks of " Tattemi," a be- 
loved chief of the Delawares, as having been 



48 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

murdered at the Forks (Easton), about the 
year 1750, "by a foolish young man." He 
was succeeded by Tedeuskund. 

See, also, Journal of Moses Titamy to the 
Minisink, Penna. Archives, vol. iii, p. 504, 
who also acted as interpreter. There were 
probably two or three distinguished persons 
of the same name, — brothers, and sons of 
William Tatamy. The father is probably 
the " chief" who was killed at Easton. 

Smith's Gap is the one through which the 
party passed in the famous Indian walk. 



Mount Taminany. 

Mount Tammany,* the New Jersey sum- 
mit of the Kittatinny, commands a view 



* Mount Tammany was named after the distinguished 
Indian chief Tamanend^ of whom Heekewelder says : " Of all 
the chiefs and great men which the Lenape nation ever had, 
he stands foremost on the list. But although many fabulous 
stories are circulated about him among the whites, but little 
of his real history is known. The misfortunes which have 
befallen some of the most beloved and esteemed personages 
among the Indians, since the Europeans came among them, 
prevented the survivors from indulging in the pleasure of 
recalling to mind the memory of their virtues. No white 



MOUNT TAMMANY. 49 

similar to that witnessed from Mount Minsi. 
It is more difficult of ascent, but less broad 
on the top, and, therefore, enables yon to 
look in all directions, excepting in range 
with the mountain. The ascent is made 
from the carriage-road along the river, near 
the slate factory in the Gap. The " Indian 
Ladder " was not, as is supposed by some, a 

man, who regards their feelings, will introduce such subjects 
in conversation with them. 

" All we know, therefore, of Tamanend is, that he was an 
ancient Delaware chief, who never had his equal. He was 
in the highest degree endowed with wisdom, virtue, pru- 
dence, charity, affability, meekness, hospitality, in short with 
every good and noble qualification that a human being may 

possess In the Revolutionary War, his enthusiastic 

admirers dubbed him a saint, and he was established, under 
the name of St. Tammany, the patron saint of America. His 
name was inserted in some calendars, and his festival cele- 
brated on the first day of May in each year. On that day, 
a numerous society of his votaries walked the streets of Phila- 
delphia, their hats decorated with bucks' tails, and proceeded 
to a handsome rural place out of town, which they called 
the Wigwam, where, after a lo7ig talk or Indian speech had 
been delivered, and the calumet of peace and friendship had 
been duly smoked, they spent the day in festivities and 
mirth 

" Since that time, other societies have been formed in 
Philadelphia and New York, and in other towns in the 
Union, under the name of Tammany ; but the principal ob- 
ject of these associations being party politics, the}^ have lost 
much of the charm which was attached to the original society 
of St. Tammany." 

5 



50 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

series of steps up the side of the mountain 
to the summit, but merely a passage up and 
over the high sharp projection near the base 
of the mountain, in the line of the Indian 
path, — a sort of promontory^ extending into 
the river, terminating in an acute angle. 
The ascent and descent, on the north side 
of this promontory, was by steps or foot- 
holds in the rocks, broken out, probably, by 
stone-mauls ; and on the south side, which 
was more precipitous, by climbing a tree 
with the branches remaining on it, placed 
against the sloping side of this projection. 
After the path became more frequented by 
the early settlers, a wooden ladder was con- 
structed in place of the tree used by the 
Indians. The present wagon-road was cut 
through this rocky promontory, and has left 
no traces of the '^ Indian Ladder." 



Sunset mil. 

Whatever may have caused the wild dis- 
order existing in and about these mountains, 
the varied and irregular appearance of the 
strata — at one place dislocated from up- 



SUNSET HILL. 51 

heavals, at another, only a few rods distant, 
regular and horizontal — will ever continue 
to be an inexhaustible field for the researches 
of the inquiring geologist. 

" Crags, knolls, and mounds, in dire confusion hurled, 
The fragmentary elements of an earlier world." 

The exposed stratum of the bluff upon 
which the Hotel is situated, is broken, but 
nearly uniform ; the next elevation immedi- 
ately in the rear of the Hotel, is entirely 
horizontal, and to all appearance as undis- 
turbed as when the plastic mass emerged 
from beneath the quiet waters, where by the 
slowly dropping sediment of untold ages, it 
had grown to its present proportions. 

Only a few rods to the east of these un- 
disturbed layers, Sunset Hill rises high 
above them, and is a confused, disjointed, 
irregular mass of rock from base to apex. 

The dip of the exposed strata, both to the 
north and south from the summit, is at an 
angle corresponding with the varying dec- 
lination of its surflice. 

From this spot, so interesting in its geo- 
logical structure, is a view composed of all 
the varieties nature makes use of, in forming 



52 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

a landscape pleasing to the eye. To the 
south the proportions of the Gap are well 
defined, and from this point Mr. Darley, the 
artist, delighted most to behold it. Looking 
to the north and east, you trace the waving 
outlines of the Shawnee Hills, the long 
stretch of the Kittatinny, and the lake-like 
repose of the Delaware, with the lower por- 
tion of Cherry Valley and the village in the 
nearer view. You will be disappointed in 
going to see the sun set from this hill, and 
will conclude there is a misapplication of 
the name, as the last rays of the sun are 
obstructed by the grove of trees to the west. 
But the pleasure to be enjoyed at this hour 
of the day, and in which the name has its 
significance, is to witness the shadows made 
from the waving outline of hills to the west, 
as they slowly climb the side of the moun- 
tain, rising higher and higher as the ^' dying 
orb " sinks to the horizon. 

Sunset Hill is the site selected for the con- 
templated hotel. We hope ere long to see 
it stand forth in proportions corresponding 
to the grandeur of the situation ; the addi- 
tional view of Cherry Yalley obtained from 
the upper balconies, will make the prospect 



MOUNT CAROLINE. 53 

altogether one of the finest to be witnessed 
from any hotel in the Union. 

llount Caroline, 

Following up the carriage-road in the di- 
rection of the village until you come to the 
little " Church of the Mountain," and on an 
elongated cone immediately in the rear of 
the church, you have an extended view of 
rare beauty, and if your stay at the ^' Gap " 
is long, you will visit it again and again. 
To the west you have a beautiful view of 
the lower portion of Cherry Valley, and the 
creek lazily winding through it, as if linger- 
ing in this lap of loveliness before losing its 
identity in the waters of the Delaware. To 
the northwest is a long stretch of undulating 
hill, commencing some ten miles up Cherry 
Valley, known as " Fox Hill," and skirting 
its border, abruptly cut asunder by the pas- 
sage of Brodhead's Creek, rising immediately 
on the opposite bank, forming a high coni- 
form bluff, named '^ Mount Lewis." The 
range of hill from the creek to its connec- 
tion with the Kittatinny, some twelve miles 
further northeast, is called '^ Shawnee Hill." 



54 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Passing the village of Shawnee, and afford- 
ing a resting-place thei^e in one of its de- 
pressions for the dead of more than a cen- 
tury, it rises to its apex at Transue's Knob, 
and soon after is lost to view from Mount 
Caroline. As the eye follows down the 
Delaware, it takes in the Islands, Indian 
Hill, and down at the base of the cliff, the 
village of the Water Gap. 

This place, so unmeaningly named hereto- 
fore, shall be called hereafter '' Mount Caro- 
line," after a lady who has long admired it, 
and who for twenty-eight consecutive sea- 
sons has honored the Delaware Water Gap 
with her presence. It is the more appropri- 
ate too, as the little church, so quietly nes- 
tled in these hills, has ever been to her an 
object of tender solicitude. 



Laurel Hill. 

Laurel Hill stands immediately in front of 
Mount Caroline. The view from this point 
is similar to the other, though not so ex- 
tended ; but during the month of June, when 
the laurel is in bloom, it is much frequented, 



BLOCKHEAD MOUNTAIN. 65 

and much admired by the early visitors at 
the Gap. 



Blockhead Mountahi, 

Blockhead Mountain is a spur of the Blue 
Ridge on the New Jersey side of the river, 
branching out from the main mountain a 
few miles above, and terminating abruptly 
opposite the inner curve of the Pennsylva- 
nia Mountain, in range with Prospect Rock, 
with which it was no doubt at one time 
connected, and formed the first barrier to 
the passage of the river. Nobody seems to 
know when Blockhead Mountain received 
its name, or why it was so named. It is no 
great favorite, and there seems to be not 
much respect entertained for his Highness, 
though it be sufficiently elevated to shut out 
the view of the Gap from the Hotel. 

The complaint of those who are obliged 
to remain at the house who cannot climb 
the hills for a better view, is, that they may 
look at the Gap as they will, and contem- 
plate it as they may. Blockhead Mountain 
is sure to have its foot in it. Notwithstand- 



56 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

iiig these complaints, it is not without in- 
terest. The serpentine course of the river 
in its passtage through the mountains, is 
" Blockhead's " doings, and adds very much 
to the beauty of the scene as witnessed from 
the carriage-road at Rebecca's Bath, or from 
a boat on the water. Blockhead Mountain 
also commands a very fine view of the Gap 
from its summit. 

Lovers^ JS^etreat, or the Haunted Tine. 

On the second plateau, the first from the 
Hotel, and on a rise of one hundred feet 
from the latter, and only a few rods south 
of the Bowling Saloon, long years beyond 
the recollection of the oldest, and until with- 
in the memory of the younger, there stood 
on the edge of the precipice, with his roots 
sunk deep in the crevices of the rocks, 
among smaller and less important trees, an 
aged pine. 

The place where it stood was one of the 
earliest, and still is one of the most favorite 
near resorts, especially for lovers ; perhaps, 
because it can only be approached from one 
direction, and affords no opportunity for 



lovers' retreat, or the haunted pine. 57 

sudden surprisals. The old tree is dead 
now, and " the place that once knew it, will 
know it no more," excepting in its spectral 
apparitions. And of it we might sing, as of 
the lamented "Grimes :" 



" Til' old pine is dead, that dear old tree, 
We ne'er shall see it more ; 
It used to wear that old green coat, 
So often worn before." 



But, as old pines outlive everything about 
them (who ever heard of one dying from 
natural causes ?) it was thought proper that 
an inquiry should be instituted to ascertain, 
if possible, the cause of its premature disso- 
lution. On examination, it was found that 
the willing soil still yielded nourishment to 
its thrifty survivors, that the canker-worm 
had not penetrated its vitals, that it had re- 
ceived no rude cuttings by the hands of the 
thoughtless axeman, nor in fact any appar- 
ent injury; but after a long and thoughtful, 
and ponderous meditation, the committee 
returned with the stunning verdict, '^ that 
the tree came to its death from the effects 
of lieat^ engendered by the too ardent appeals 
of importunate suitors.''^ Nobody, of course. 



58 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

gave any credence to such a report; but 
shortly after, on a bright moonlight night, 
when at the Hotel there was mirth and 
gayety, 

" And all went merry as a marriage bell," 

the startling alarm was given, and the "old 
pine" was seen to be on fire^ and as the 
flames ascended high up in the air and illu- 
mined the whole cliff, a pair of lovers were 
seen quietly to emerge from the place and 
make their descent toward the Hotel, upon 
which a member of the committee, who hap- 
pened to be present, had the temerity to 
make the ungallant remark, that, '^now the 
truth of their verdict was more than con- 
firmed." Since then the place is reported 
to be haunted ; and haunted it is, if ever a 
spot was haunted ; and why may not ghosts 
inhabit the body of a tree as well as anybody 
else? Vague and uncertain sounds are heard 
to issue from the place even on moonlight 
evenings, in tones from a gentle whisper to 
plaintive lamentations. 



CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 59 

Martin's Itest. 

On the carriage-road leading north from 
the Hotel, and as it turns the point at the 
base of Sunset Hill, there is a view very 
similar to that seen from its summit, here- 
tofore described. 

A few steps up the side of the hill a seat 
is erected, on which may be seen on many 
a warm summer evening, a party long and 
pleasantly remembered by many a sojourner 
at the Kittatinny House. The place is 
known as " Martin's Rest." 



Church of the Mountain, 

The church is a few minutes' walk from 
the Hotel. It was built both for the accom- 
modation of the visitors at the Gap, and the 
people of the neighborhood, liberal contri- 
butions having been made for that purpose 
by those who, more or less frequently, visit 
this place.* Previous to its erection, the 

* For the conception and successful prosecution of this 
design, all who feel an interest in the little Church of the 
Mountain, will hold in grateful remembrance the names of 
Mrs. Franklin Peale and Dr. J. Marshall Paul. 



60 DELAWARE WATE^ GAP. 

nearest cliurches were at Stroudsburg and 
Shawnee. But the zealous and indefatiga- 
ble Methodists embraced this in their field 
of Christian labor, and worshipped in the 
schoolhouse and in private families almost 
since the village had existence. Twenty- 
five years ago extra meetings were held, at 
suitable seasons of the year, in my father's 
barn. Many pleasant recollections of boy- 
hood days are associated with the weekly or 
semi-monthlj' visits of the youthful itinerant 
preachers, who, like the schoolmasters of 
former days, '' boarded 'round," and, to each 
family in turn, were always welcome guests. 
The church was erected in 1854, and was 
dedicated in the month of July of that year. 
The Rev. Horatio S. Howell was the first 
pastor. He came to the Water Gap in Au- 
gust, 1853, and organized the church (New 
School Presbyterian) the following winter. 
Mr. Howell continued as pastor until March, 
1862, when he was chosen chaplain of the 
Ninetieth Regiment Pennsylvania Yolun- 
teers, commanded by Colonel Lyle, and was 
killed by a rebel soldier whilst attending to 
the sick and wounded at the Hospital in 
Gettysburg, July 1st, 18G3. The following 



CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 61 

report of this melancholy event was made 
by a correspondent of one of the city papers 
at the time : 



" Downright Murdek. 

" On the afternoon of the 1st, as the rebels 
charged through the town, the pistols car- 
ried by them, and with which they had been 
abundantly supplied, were fired promiscu- 
ously at all who might be in the street, look- 
ing out of windows, or standing in the door- 
ways. 

'^ A squadron of this charging party rode 
directly up to the front of the hospital and 
deliberately discharged their pistols at those 
who were standing upon the steps and upon 
the walks in front. This firing instantly 
robbed our service of one of its most pious, 
excellent, and beloved chaplains, the Rev. 
Mr. Howell, of the Ninetieth Pennsylvania 
Regiment." 

Mr. Howell's death cast a gloom over the 
entire neighborhood. He was, indeed, a 
most beloved pastor, a noble, generous- 
hearted man, and an ardent patriot. 

6 



62 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

The Eev. E. J. Pierce was the successor 
of Mr. Howell. The present pastor, Rev. S. 
W. Knipe entered upon his labors in May 
of this year. 

The following extract from the sermon 
delivered at the dedication of the Church of 
the Mountain will be interesting to most 
persons who visit this place : 

DEDICATIO:^ SERMON, 

CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN, DELAWARE WATER GAP, 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

By the Kev. r. F. Ellinwood, 

Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Belvidere, N. J. 

August 29, 1854. 
"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways ; Go up to 

THE mountain AND BRING WOOD, AND BUILD THE HOUSE, AND I 
WILL TAKE PLEASURE IN IT, AND I WILL BE GLORIFIED, SAITH 

THE Lord." — Haggai 1 : 7, 8. 

For many centuries past, has Jehovah 
dwelt in the rocky fastnesses of this moun- 
tain. Ere there was a human ear to listen, 
His voice was uttered here in the sighing 
of the breeze and the thunder of the storms, 
which even then were wont to writhe in the 
close grapple of this narrow gorge. Ere one 
human footstep had invaded the wildness of 



CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 63 

the place, or the hand of art had applied the 
drill and blast to the silent rock, God's hand 
was working here alone — delving out its 
deep, rugged pathway for yonder river, and 
clothing those gigantic bluffs and terraces 
with undying verdure, and the far-gleaming 
brightness of their laurel bloom. Every day 
since that first dawn whereat the morning 
stars sang joyfully together, has God been 
present here, in Nature's broad temple, which, 
as the ancient Germani would tell us, is 
alone adequate to the indwelling of the In- 
finite One ; but never, until tliis day, has He 
dwelt here in a temple made with hands. 

Never, amid these almost eternal rocks, 
has an event like this to-day transpired be- 
fore. We trust that, for years past, there 
have been individual hearts in which the 
presence of God has here been felt, and we 
know not but earlier still, the E,ed man, 
catching, it may be, the name of Jesus from 
the lips of the beloved Brainerd, has tuned 
here in wild notes the songs of Zion ; or, on 
this very spot, kneeling at the calm sunset 
hour, has breathed the prayer of a renewed 
heart to heaven. But not until this day 
have God's people here thrown open the 



64 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

doors of a consecrated temple, and sat down 
therein, to wait in prayerfulness together, 
while the unseen Jehovah — heavenly guest 
— should come and make His dwelling in 
their midst. Thus sit we here together now. 
The temple has been built; all things are 
ready, and what wait we for but the pres- 
ence of our God? "Lift up your heads, 0! 
ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting 
doors, and the King of Glorj^ shall come in. 
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, 
strong and mighty; the Lord, mighty in 
battle. Lift up your heads, ! ye gates ; 
even lift them up ye everlasting doors, and 
the King of Glory shall come in. Who is 
this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, 
He is the King of Glory." 

The present occasion may well be one 
of great rejoicing to us all, my friends, since 
to-day a fond hope is realized. It seems but 
yesterday that we assembled here, in the 
open air, to lay the corner-stone of this edi- 
fice ; and while the sultrj^ autumnal sun was 
beaming warm upon us, and the solemn, yet 
beautiful October tinge was dappling all 
these wooded heights, we stood with un- 
covered heads and commended this unbuilt 



CriURCII OF THE MOUNTAIN. 65 

temple to the care of Almighty God — feel- 
ing as the Psalmist felt, that "except the 
Lord build the house, they do labor in vain 
that build it." But now we meet to rejoice, 
with thanksgiving, that our prayer has been 
heard ; that God's blessing lias rested upon 
this holy enterprise, and that we are here 
permitted to sit in those heaven-appointed 
courts, wherein one day, rightly spent, is 
better than a thousand in the tents of wick- 
edness. It seems but yesterday, too, that 
wintry day on which we met in the small 
school-house opposite, and organized a church 
who should thenceforth worship God in this 
mountain, and felt that the place was too 
strait for those who had assembled, and 
looked forward with hope to the time when 
we should meet in God's own house. That 
hope is now realized to the full extent: we 
find its fruition in the pleasantness and con- 
venience of this beautiful structure. "How 
amiable are thy Tabernacles, Lord of 
Hosts! Blessed are they that dwell in thy 
house; they shall be still praising thee!" 

It is an interesting feature in the objects 
of this occasion, that the result which we 
here behold is but the consummation of a 

c* 



QQ DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

purpose which God liimself had long since 
formed. It was He who, by one means or 
another, first said to his people, with refer- 
ence to this work, " Go up to the mountain, 
and bring wood and build the house, and I 
will take pleasure in it, and I will be glori- 
fied, saith the Lord." It was He who, by 
the leadings of his Providence and the in- 
fluence of his Spirit, first put it into the 
heart of a Christian woman to devise and 
commence this noble work. It was He who 
raised up other promoters of his kingdom, 
who, with responsive and willing hearts, 
took up and carried forward what had been 
commenced. It was He who called forth 
the prayers and efforts of his children in 
this place ; for, as in the days of Nehemiah, 
so here " the people had a mind to work," 
and " all the wall was joined together." It 
was God primarily who planned it all, and 
to Him the sincere thanks of every heart are 
due. Indeed, He has been preparing for 
this church during many years and even 
ages past. There is not a beam in all this 
edifice but He reared it for the very purpose 
which it here subserves — even when its germ 
first rooted in the mould of the mountain 



CHURCH OF the mountain. 67 

side ; He saw the object of its existence in 
the building of this house. Neither is there 
a stone in the edifice which He did not pre- 
pare for its present use; and as to the firm 
foundation whereon this structure rests, God 
said of it, ages ago, as He did of Peter, '- On 
this rock I will build my church." That 
fiat is this day brought to complete execu- 
tion. The rude blasts of six thousand win- 
ters have howled in undaunted wildness 
over the consecrated spot, while yet its pre- 
dicted destiny was not fulfilled ; but here, at 
length, stands, in very deed the charcli firmhj 
built upon the rock, and it is our hope and 
prayer that the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it. 

But we turn from the past to the future. 
You have been up to the mountain, and 
brought wood, and built the house, led on, 
as we verily believe, by the eternal design 
and moving power of God ; you have been 
sanctioned, we trusty and blest by Him in all 
the work from first to last, and therefore by 
implication we may plead His promise, that 
He will take pleasure in this built and 
dedicated Temple, and be glorified therein. 
Even in the planning and building of the 



68 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

church, thoiisrh nothing: further should be 
done, though by some casualty this edifice 
should be now destroyed, even in that which 
has been already accomplished, God is glo- 
rified, and yet we would feel that his great- 
est glory in this church will be derived from 
that which in future shall here be done. 
We would regard the temple itself as the 
means only to a greater end; we would look 
onward hopefully to the effectual and wide- 
spread working of God's Holy Spirit here ; 
we would think of the multitudes who may 
hereafter receive the Word of Eternal Life 
in this consecrated place ; we would antici- 
pate the growth of a large and flourishing 
church and congregation here — one whose 
influence for good shall extend itself over all 
these mountains, and whose Heaven-reflected 
lio-ht shall shine out throuo:h all these val- 
leys, so that spiritually, as w^ell as literally, 
this may prove to be a city set upon a hill, 
which therefore cannot be hid. And we 
would rejoice in the thought that hereafter 
those from our cities, who shall resort to 
this mountain for health or pleasure, may 
here find health indeed, in the healing " balm 
of Life," and " pleasures for evermore," at 



CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 69 

the hand of God; that such of their numher 
as love the gates of Zion at home, may here 
also find a sanctuary with its holy Sabbath 
service ; while those wdio love not God — 
whom the business and pleasure and fash- 
ions of city life have kept ever whirling in 
the maelstrom of worldliness, may here, at 
least, in the quiet of this secluded temple, 
be brought for the first time to Christ, 
through the simple and earnest preaching 
of the Word. 

And, my friends, it is a glorious hope 
which we indulge to-dny, that never again, 
while time shall last, shall there be wanting 
in this mountain an abode for the living 
God; that although a hundred centuries 
more should be added to the unknown age 
of these solid rocks, they may never be 
found without at least one church. Indeed, 
when we reflect upon the progressive nature 
of the Redeemer's Kingdom, and at the 
same time the progressive tendencies of this 
country, now becoming, instead of China, 
the middle kingdom of the w^orld, we see no 
reason to suppose tliat the time ever lolH 
come when no church will here be found. 
We have no fear of a retrograde movement, 



70 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

although such cases have indeed been known. 
We can conceive of and hope for great ad- 
vancement here ; we can look forward fifty 
years, and imagine four or five churches 
standing in the midst of a flourishing vil- 
lage ; we can conceive of a time, — perhaps 
a centurv to come, — when a halo of historic 
interest shall have gathered round each 
name of the original assembly who dedi- 
cated the little antique church upon the 
hill, — when those who moved in building it 
shall be held in grateful honor, and when a 
leaf of the Dedication Sermon, if found, 
would be regarded as a quaint relic of a com- 
paratively barbarous age. All this is per- 
haps supposable, but we expect no turning 
back — no abatement of interest; we hope 
for life and action and constant progress. 
We cannot resist the impression that we are 
honored of God to-day, in being permitted 
to begin a work which shall not end till all 
earthly things shall end, nor even then ; and 
I would say for your encouragement, my 
friends, that with faithfulness on your part, 
in carrying out the holy enterprise which 
you have commenced, a thousand recipients 
of blessings here may rise up and call you 



CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 71 

blessed at the last great day. If here, both 
by 3^our personal effort and your pecuniary 
means, you lend a liberal hand in maintain- 
ing the ordinances of grace ; if here unitedly 
you watch and pray for souls, believing that 
God will answer ; if here you instruct the 
young, training them from very childhood 
to labor in your places when you are gone, 
thus carrying on from generation to genera- 
tion this glorious work; then how many, 
oh! how many precious stars for the Ke- 
deemer's crown will ultimately have been 
gathered in this place ! How great a good 
will have been accomplished from this be- 
ginning ! 

From the preliminary points which have 
thus far been touched upon, it will readily 
be seen that much of God's glory in this 
church lies yet in the future, and is inti- 
mately connected with the degree of holy 
and earnest activity which his people here 
are expected to put forth in time to come. 
We see that when by His Providence he said 
to you, '' Go up to the mountain and bring 
wood and build the house," and when He 
promised to take pleasure and be glorified 
therein, something was implied which yet 



72 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

remains for you to do. In directing you to 
build the house, the design with which it is 
built was kept constantly in view, of course. 
While, therefore, we have great reason to 
congratulate yoii^ my friends, and render our 
heartfelt thanks to Heaven in view of that 
which already has been done, it becomes an 
interesting and profitable inquiry for us, and 
one appropriate to the occasion, how, so 
far as future effort is concerned, may God 
best be glorified in this newly-dedicated 
temple? Let this be the one prominent 
question, not only for this discourse and this 
occasion, but forever, so long as the church 
shall stand. How, according to the promise 
in our text, shall God best be glorified in 
this His own holy habitation? 



CAI\E\IAGE DI\IYES. 



The places of interest in and about the 
Gap are divided into two classes : those seen 
by pedestrians, and of easy access from the 
Hotel, and those seen by carriage-drives of 
from three to fifteen miles. Of the latter 
class are Cherry Valley and Stroudsburg, 
with the intermediate view from Fox Hill, 
Cherry Valley, and Crystal Hill, Buttermilk 
Falls, Marshall's Falls, and Bushkill Falls, 
Shawnee Hill, Transue's Knob, Castle Rock, 
Slate Factories and Quarries, and the New 
Jersey hills. The summit of Mount Minsi 
can also be reached by a circuitous drive of 
some six miles ; but as the road is rough and 
precipitous, this journey should be made on 
horseback, if not, on foot via Prospect Rock. 

The roads to all these points, excepting 
the last named, are firm and comparatively 

7 



74 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

smooth, but hilly; no one, however, who 
passes over them will wish the hills less 
elevated, or the valleys less deep, as the 
beauty of the scenery is much enhanced 
thereby. 

Cherry Valley from Fox Hill, 

Fox Hill, alluded to in the view from 
Mount Caroline, is elevated above the river 
from three hundred feet to five hundred feet, 
and its whole length, including the portion 
east of Brodhead's Creek, called Shawnee 
Hill, about twenty-five miles. It has its 
termination in the Kittatinny Mountain, a 
short distance from where the Delaware di- 
vides it, near Flat Brook in New Jersey. 

At one of the depressions in Fox Hill, 
the carriage-road passes to Stroudsburg. 
Near the summit of the road, a portion of 
Cherry Valley is seen to the left, and so 
hemmed in with mountains you wonder 
w^here the quiet comfortable-looking inhabi- 
tants find their egress. The creek seems in 
no hurry to find an outlet, for after slowly 
wandering on its journey for some distance, 
it makes an irregular circuit, and returns to 



STROUDSBURG. 



75 



within a few rods of the place it left a little 
while before, and forms a considerable pen- 
insula, resembling in appearance an exag- 
gerated pedal member, called the '' Giant's 
Foot." The whole scene is a picture of 
rural beauty, much admired by visitors. 

Stroiidsburg. 

On the west side of Fox Hill, another 
valley of equal beauty with Cherry Valley, 
and of greater variety, is witnessed from the 
carriage-road. It is, like the former, nearly 
encircled with mountains and hills, the most 
distant and very prominent is a spur of the 
Pocono. It stands out like a grand monu- 
ment, the lesser hills rising one above an- 
other from the valley, forming a substantial 
pedestal on which to rest its giant propor- 
tions. The town, of about two thousand 
inhabitants, is ^jleasantly situated in the 
lower portion of the valley of the Pocono. 
Three beautiful streams unite on its eastern 
border. It has a large extent of valley land 
to spread over, and when the cities of Phila- 
delphia and New York are reached in a 
reasonable time by rail, it will afford induce- 



76 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

merits for the erection of country residences, 
equal to any situation on either thorough- 
fare. 

On your return from Stroudsburg you 
cross Fox Hill at a point a short distance 
to the west, and have another and different 
view of Cherry Valley, and a pleasant ride 
through it to the Kittatinny House. 

Cherry Valley and Crystal Hill. 

Cherry Valley runs nearly parallel with 
the Kittatinny Mountain ; the portion west 
of the Wilkesbarre turnpike to the Lehigh 
is called Achquonshicola, after the creek of 
that name, which flows west into the Lehigh 
above Lehigh Gap, having its rise near that 
of Cherry Creek, which flows in an opposite 
direction to the Delaware. The whole leno^th 
of the valley being about thirty-five miles. 

The usual distance of the drive is from 
seven to ten miles, and is full of interest 
and beauty. Crystal Hill requires a walk of 
half a mile from the valley road to its sum- 
mit. The whole of the rocky surface is more 
or less crystalline, and some very fine speci- 
mens of quartz are sometimes obtained. 



BUTTERMILK FALLS. 77 

A short distance up the valley from here, 
in Shaw's meadows, are seen those conical 
hills of diluvial deposit, produced no doubt 
by the surging of the water and the action 
of fields of ice against the sides of the moun- 
tain at the time when the waters covering 
the valley of the Minisink were supposed to 
have had their elevated outlet at the Wind 
Gap, and before the bursting asunder of the 
mountain at the Water Gap. 

JButtertnilk Falls. 

The ledge over which the creek passes at 
this point, is composed of fossiliferous lime- 
stone. Over these dark rocks the stream 
spreads in tortuous channels, through which 
it has worked its way in eccentric and even 
grotesque whirls. The water so fretted and 
chafed into foam is not unlike in appearance 
the homely product of the dairy, which has 
given its name to this unique cascade. 

Buttermilk Falls and Marshall's Falls are 
on the same stream, and can both be seen 
in a morning's or after-dinner's ride. The 
distance to the first is three miles, and to 
Marshall's Falls seven miles. Their beauty 

7* 



78 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

depends much upon the condition of the 
stream, being greatly enhanced when the 
volume of water is increased. 



Marsha IV s Falls, 

The rocks of this vicinity are of a dark 
color, and are filled with fossil casts and im- 
pressions ; they are seamed all over with 
fissures and cracks, so much so, as to be 
easily detached in irregular shaped frag- 
ments bv the action of the elements. The 
skilful use of the hammer and chisel will 
reveal some fine specimens of the trilobites, 
ammonites, and bivalve shells. The waters 
of Marshall's Creek have worn their way 
through this ledge in a chasm of some fifty 
feet in depth, leaving an overhanging cliff" 
on the right side of the spectator, from be- 
neath which he gazes through a portal be- 
tween the approaching rocks upon the cata- 
ract, which falls into an interior basin, in- 
accessible because filled with water, which, 
after its short and precipitous career over 
the rapids above, makes its final leap into 
the dark basin, and flows thence through 
the narrow portal above mentioned ; thence 



BUSHKILL FALLS. 79 

expanded to a wider sheet, and finally in a 
rippling course takes its way towards the 
Delaware. 



BiishMll Falls, 

On the way to Bushkill Falls, and three 
miles from the hotel, you pass over a por- 
tion of the Shawnee Hill projecting from the 
main range. From this elevation is a fine 
prospect both up and down the river, and of 
the lower portion of Cherry Valley ; a view 
embracing much that has heretofore been 
described, but now seen from a point so 
favorable as to give it additional beauty. 
At the foot of the hill you pass the village 
of Shawnee, where the first settlement north 
of the mountain was formed. The whole of 
the first ten miles of the road to Bushkill 
is along the river, through a well-cultivated 
valley, between the parallel range of moun- 
tain and hill, and adorned with pictures of 
rural beauty rarely equalled. At the end 
of this drive you leave the river road, and 
ascend the Shawnee Hill again. When near 
the summit, do not fail to climb the bluff, a 



80 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

short distance to the right of the road, named 
Florabanda. 

From this point you overlook the valley 
through'which you have just passed, includ- 
ing the narrow belt of cultivated land in 
New Jersey, so beautifully sloping from the 
base of the mountain to the river, called 
Pahaqualong. The settlement is contempo- 
rary with that at Shawnee. 

A short distance below^ where the moun- 
tain approaches the river the ancient copper 
mines are situated. The view up the river 
is in contrast with that just witnessed. The 
stream, being closely hemmed in by moun- 
tain and hill, with a thickly wooded island 
in the centre, presents a wild forest-like ap- 
pearance. 

The bold sweep which the river makes to 
the Pennsylvania shore just below where 
you stand has carried aw%ay a large body of 
its alluvial banks. It is called by the lum- 
berman " Loving Shore," the current of the 
stream giving the rafts a strong inclination 
in that direction."^ 



* It seems to be a fact, and if so, worthy of observation, 
that the banks on the Dehiware Kiver are more injured in 
times of high Avater on the western or Pennsylvania shore 



BUSHKILL FALLS. 81 

Three miles from here you reach the town 
of Bushkill, pleasantly situated on the stream 
of the same name, and here is an inviting 
place to take a rest at a clean, comfortable 
Hotel, kept by Mr. Peters. By giving orders 
you will have an excellent dinner in readi- 
ness on your return from the " Falls." 

A part of the remaining journey along 
the Bushkill Creek is picturesque. The lat- 
ter portion is through a newly-settled coun- 
try, and the road rough and hilly. After 
you have lost all signs of civilization and 
may, perhaps, be wondering whether 

" The sound of the church-going bell 
These vallej^s and rocks ever heard," 

you suddenly come upon a church, standing 
solitary and alone in the forest ; and how- 
ever much you may be interested in the 
good work of erecting temples of worship at 
every suitable place, you will wonder what 

than on that of New Jersey, where the near approach of the 
mountain does not prevent it, the inclination of the current, 
in times of freshets, being more in that direction. What it 
takes from Pennsylvania, however, in alluvium, it gives 
back to New Jersey in diluvium, or cleanly washed sand 
and gravel, of which its citizens protest they have quantuvi 
sufficlt. 



8'^ DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

extraordinary Christian zeal could have in- 
duced the building of a church out of sight, 
and out of sound, of human habitation or 
human worshipper; but here it is, with its 
sad accompaniment, a burial-ground, and its 
silent inhabitants 

"Imploring the passing tribute of a sigh." 

The Falls are a few rods' walk from the 
church. Nature has wrought very beauti- 
fully in this wild secluded spot; and yet, 
until quite recently, these Falls remained 
comparatively unknown. Shall we doubt, 
however, that the rude and uncultivated red 
men were sensible to their beauty; and that 
their wild notes of admiration were less ar- 
dent than our own encomiums ? The chasm 
is surrounded on three sides by a nearly 
perpendicular wall of rock. On one of these 
walls opposite the Falls you stand to witness 
the stream as it emerges from the thick 
woods, and leaps over the precipice into the 
dark interior basin beneath where you stand. 
Whirled and chafed into a foam it passes 
into the narrow gorge below, and is lost to 
view by the overhanging rocks. The Falls 



FALLS OF WINONA. 



83 



are ninety-six feet in height, broken in the 
centre by the abrasion of the water on the 
upper portion of the cliff, which rather adds 
to than detracts from their beauty. But 
you are quite as much impressed with the 
adamantine chamber below you, and its wild 
surroundings, as with the Falls themselves. 
On your return from Bushkill, take what 
is known as the " middle road," through a 
well-cultivated portion of high table-land, 
studded with substantial and comfortable- 
looking farm-house!:'. 



Falls of Winona. 

These Falls are situated on Saw Creek, a 
branch of the Bushkill, about eleven miles 
from the Water Gap. 

They were unfrequented and almost un- 
known, except by those who occasionally 
resorted to the mountain stream for trout- 
fishing, until the summer of 1867, a party 
visited the place from the hotel. 

The stream is wild and picturesque, and 
contains in the distance of two miles, six 
beautiful waterfalls, named respectively by 



84 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

the party then present, in their order as you 
follow up the stream: Glinton, Tioin, Mary- 
hrigU, Glen Martin, Winona, and J)ancing 
Waters. Of these, " Winona " is the Largest, 
and was named by the Ladies after the hero- 
ine of the legend of ''Lover's Leap." It is 
difficult to conceive of a more charming and 
romantic series of pictures than is found in 
this wild secluded mountain glen. 



Transiie^s Knob. 

On the Shawnee Hill, six miles from the 
Hotel, there stands, a hundred feet above 
the limestone measure of which the hill is 
a component, a pyramidal deposit of dilu- 
vium, covering several acres, composed main- 
ly of pebbles and coarse gravel. Whether 
this curious formation of the aqueous ele- 
ment is Noachian, or whether the waters of 
the Delaware for a time rose above its sum- 
mit, and made eccentric gyrations around 
this spot, and deposited in the interior of 
the irregular circle this mass of drift, at the 
time when the body of water commenced to 
find an outlet at the Gap, it is impossible to 



CASTLE ROCK. 85 

determine ; but it will always afford an in- 
teresting subject of inquiry to the geologist. 
From this bald summit there is a panoramic 
view of great extent and beauty. A blend- 
ing of the wildest forest scenes with culti- 
vated fields and scattered farm-houses. 

The river lies spread out before you, calm 
and serene now, for its work is done. Na- 
ture's solid masonry having yielded, atom 
by atom, until the unceasing waters have 
found their wonted bed. 



Castle Hock. 

On what is called the middle road to Bush- 
kill, about four miles from the Hotel, is Cas- 
tle Rock. The strange and sometimes in- 
explicable forms of geological structure, of 
which this is a striking example, can only 
be realized by a visual examination. From 
the face of the steep slope of Shawnee Hill, 
the rocks project and overlook the valley 
through which the road passes, like a fortress 
of ancient days, to defend the pass. The 
name is sufficiently indicative, and quite 
appropriate. 



86 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



New Jersey mils. 

This drive is a circuit of twelve miles. 
Passing the Gap you cross the river in a flat- 
boat three miles below, and return through 
the mountains on the opposite side of the 
river, having a fine view of the Gap on both 
sides above and below. The road follows 
the windings of the river and skirts the base 
of the mountain the whole distance ; nearly 
opposite the Hotel you ascend the hills, and 
have a variety of pictures that you will ad- 
mire and long retain pleasant recollections 
of. You recross the river at the ferry three 
miles above, and return home by the Shaw- 
nee Hills. 



Tidke of the Mountain. 

This is a sheet of pure transparent water 
surrounded by an irregular curved outline 
of foliage, and clear bare fragments and 
masses of gray sandstone, strangely and 
unaccountably situated upon the very sum- 
mit of the mountain on the New Jersey side 
of the river. A mirror of beauty in the soli- 



INDIAN RELICS. 87 

tary wilderness, three-quarters of a mile in 
length, and something less in breadth, re- 
flecting the image of the clouds, the only 
objects above its fair surflice, beneath which 
in its transparent depths, the perch roam in 
solitary and peaceful independence. 

The lake is reached by a carriage-ride to 
the ferry at Shawnee, and then by a rugged 
mountain path, accessible to all who have 
stout limbs and good lungs, and desire to 
have these requisites of healthful existence 
continued. 



Indian Jlelics, 

The articles of the stone age found so plen- 
tifully in this valley were, no doubt, those 
made and used by the Indians last inhabit- 
ing it; and their abundance seems to be 
evidence of friendly intercourse with the 
whites, as they were known to abandon their 
own implements, and adopt at the first op- 
portunity those better suited to their pur- 
pose, introduced by the Europeans. In 
other sections of the country, known to have 
been inhabited by Indians in large numbers, 



88 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

comparatively few articles of their own fab- 
rication are to be found, showing that they 
left hurriedly, and took with them their own 
implements. 

The number found in an extent of ten 
miles in this valley, of stone, bone, and terra- 
cotta, would appear incredible to relate to 
one unfamiliar with the locality. 

The collection seen at the Hotel, compris- 
ing perhaps a thousand pieces, is probably 
not the one-hundredth part of the number 
obtained. It is to be regretted that we know 
so little, comparatively, of a people possess- 
ing many traits of character we cannot but 
admire, and who were so friendly to our 
ancestors,— until being dealt unjustly with 
were driven to seek revenge ; — who were the 
admiring possessors of these beautiful moun- 
tains and valleys, and who are now entirely 
passed away, with no record, and scarcely a 
tradition of their doings remembered. 

We know little, too, of their mode of bu- 
rial — less of the ceremonials. They were 
not mound builders, like those of the Missis- 
sippi Valley, yet they appear to have made 
selection of elevated places, and invariably 
commanding a view of the water and valley. 



INDIAN RELICS. 89 

The two cemeteries spoken of in this locality 
are remarkable for the beauty of scenery 
afforded. 

All, however, were not deposited in regu- 
lar burial-places, as single bodies are some- 
times exhumed by the plough, and frequently 
washed out along the river-banks. Whe- 
ther these were enemies, or those less re- 
spected, or what caused the discrimination, 
cannot be determined. Like all the race, 
they deposited with the dead, articles most 
highly prized by them whilst living. 
' In the construction of implements and 
tools they never advanced beyond what ar- 
chaeologists denominate the stone age. 

In this period of man's progress, however, 
are included &oy?e and terra-cotta or earthen- 
made articles. There has been but one ar- 
ticle found in this valley, so far as known, 
that can be said to belong to the " bronze age" 
This was a copper axe, made however from 
the raw material, and ground down to the 
required size and form. 

The stone utensils found in the Minisink 
consist of agricultural {mp)lements, pestles and 
mortars, hand-mill stones, chisels, hammers, 
axes, flint knives, arroic-points, spear-heads, 

8* 



90 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



tomahawks, personal ornament.% and pipes, 
and those belonging to the fictile art, consist- 
ing oi pots, vases, hoivls, plates, &c. 

The articles of stone used for agricultural 
purposes are comparatively few in number. 
Those most evidently made with that design 
are circular slate discs, one-fourth of an inch 
in thickness, notched on opposite sides, and 
about the size of our broad hoe, and were 
probably used in the same way and for like 
purposes, with withe handles. For break- 
ing up and loosening the soil, they used 
wood and hone. The shoulder blade of the elk 
and buffalo answered the purposes of the 
plough and spade. The pestles were used in 
stone and wooden morUtrs, for grindin^v or 
mashing corn, the preparation of medicines, 
&c. In size, they are from six inches to 
twenty-four inches in length, and from one 
and a half to three inches in diameter. The 
method of constructing the pestle is very 
satisfactorily described by the late lamented 
Franklin Peale, of Philadelphia, in a com- 
munication read before the American Philo- 
sophical Society. 

The process of " pecking " and rubbing or 
grinding applies to almost all the stone-made 



INDIAN RELICS. 91 

articles, excepting the spear-head, arrow- 
point, and flint knives. Mr. Peale says : 

^'A water-worn stone was selected, ap- 
proximated by natural agency and action, 
the abrasion of moving masses in water, to 
the desired form. The superabundant ma- 
terial was then removed by a process which 
may be called ' pecking,' the characteristic 
marks of which appear upon a numerous 
class of instruments, such as pestles, mortars, 
chisels, &c. It was effected by blows with 
the sharp points of horn-stone, jasper, or 
chalcedony, either directly with a mass of 
those materials held in the hand, or aided 
by a mallet or club, or secured to wooden 
handles, by insertion and ligaments of ten- 
don, or lashings of raw hide ; the said blows 
were given in a direction perpendicular to 
the surface, and not with the tool placed at 
an angle, as is usual in chipping or dressing 
marble, thus strongly and plainly marking 
the surface of the larger and rougher imple- 
ments, and more delicately those of the 
smaller or lesser. 

" From the number of fragments found it is 
evident that many implements must have 
been broken under the operation. It is also 



92 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

evident from the numerons unfinished speci- 
mens found, that the characteristic unsus- 
tained Labor of savages caused many to be 
abandoned with careless indifference in an 
unfinished state, after considerable time and 
work had been bestowed upon them. 

" This manner of working off by crush- 
ing the surface is analogous in principle to 
the usages of modern ' stonecutters ' when 
working upon sandstone and granite, but it 
is not adapted to marble, which requires 
that the tool should be held and struck at 
an angle (with this marked difference, that 
they use tools of steel), so as to lift off chips 
without crushing, and thus destroying the 
structure of the marble ; by the first method 
noted, unskilful workmen destroy or greatly 
injure works of art. 

"After the implement had been brought by 
pecking to the required form, a higher degree 
of finish was given by rubbing with sand- 
stones, or by rubbing it upon sandstone rocks 
until the peck-marks were either partially 
or wholly obliterated, and the implement 
thus finished. 

" It is evident that the higher degree of fin- 
ish exhibited by the polish of some articles, 



INDIAN RELICS. 03 

was the result of a higher grade of workman- 
ship, with materials properly selected, upon 
principles similar to those employed at the 
present day. 

^'The operation o^ pecking upon a detached 
rock confined to a circular space, enabled the 
patient laborer to work out a cavity capable 
of receiving a quantity of maize or other 
grain, and thus a mortar was made ; not in- 
variably, however, upon a detached mass, 
as they have been observed upon rocks in 

place. 

" This method of working leaves a mark 
entirely dissimilar to any produced by natu- 
ral causes. The rolling of floods has a ten- 
dency to remove the angles and corners of 
broken fragments detached from their beds 
by frost and water or other elemental causes. 
Changes of temperature are rounding and 
smoothing, or produce entire disintegration, 
but the mark made by the above-described 
means can never, when once observed, be 
mistaken for anything else than man's work, 
and the eye that has once carefully observed 
it will never fail in its recognition. It is 
also so with the conchoidal fracture of silici- 



94 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

ous implements, which unmistakably charac- 
terizes them." 

The mortars were of two kinds, stationary 
and ijortahle. The former were circular holes 
of about twelve inches in diameter, and from 
two to six inches in depth, cut in a smooth 
surface rock, situated at some convenient 
and accessible point. This was the neigh- 
borhood mill, driven, however, without steam 
or water-power. Each customer was expected 
to grind his own grist and take his own toll. 

The portable mortars were made, some of 
steatite or soapstone, and others of sandstone. 

The pestle and mortar process merely 
broke the maize in coarse fragments, and 
this by being boiled made the favorite Indian 
dish called samp, and from the aborigines 
we have adopted its use, as well as its name. 
But the grooving fastidiousness of some In- 
dian damsel demanding a greater variety of 
edibles in her culinary department, set the 
inventive genius of her admirer at work, 
and the result was the production of the up- 
per and the nether millstone. The method of 
operation, like the pestle and mortar, was 
by hand-power, but the principle involved is 
the same as that in use in our mills at the 



INDIAN RELICS. 



95 



present day. The nether millstone was a 
rock of smooth, even surface, and the upper, 
a stone suitably wrought for the purpose. 
This process pulverized the grain to the 
long-desired excellence, and corn dodgers 
flowed naturally therefrom, to the astonish- 
ment and delight of the nation. These de- 
licious cakes were made by wrapping the 
moistened meal in husks of the corn, and 
baking them under the embers. 

Our sable countrymen in ''Dixie" denomi- 
nate a similar article the " hoe-caJce;' which 
differs from the former only in the manner 
of cooking. The latter is baked on a hoe or 
sJiovel, held before the fire, but not as the old 
song says : 

"De way to bake a hoe-cake— Old Virginia neber tire- 
Stick de hoe-cake on defooi, and hold it to de fire." 

The axe somewhat resembles our steel tool 
of that name. In the place of the eye for 
the helve, a groove was cut near the end, 
around which the handle was bent, and tied 
with rawhide. 

They could have been of little use in fell- 
ing timber, but besides the partial purpose 



96 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



of an axe in other respects, they were for- 
midable weajDons of war in close combat. 

Chisels are so called from their resemblance 
to our steel tool of that name. In England 
they are called Celts, after the early people 
who used a similar article, and who formerly 
inhabited a great part of Central and West- 
ern Europe. The implements are now found 
in the tumuli or barrows of these early Celtic 
nations. They were used by our Indians 
for a variety of purposes, among others, for 
skinning animals, and also for removing the 
charred wood, as they burned the inner por- 
tion of the log from which they made their 
canoe, the outer surface, in the meantime, 
being kept wet, so as to preserve the sides 
and ends from burning. On these chisels 
were used hucMorn handles. The same ar- 
ticles, with buckhorn handles, securely fas- 
tened by an impervious cement, have been 
found in the bottom of the lake drained a 
few years ago in Switzerland. 

It is very remarkable that the implements 
of the stone age belonging to the early peo- 
ple of Central Europe should be almost in all 
respects identical with those found in posses- 
sion of the North American Indians. 



INDIAN RELICS. 97 

Besides the ordinary sized cbisel found 
here, usually about six inches in length, we 
have a huge article of the kind, weighing 
some fifteen pounds, with a double bevelled 
edge. It is supposed to have been used for 
cutting holes in the ice for fishing. 

Another form of the chisel is quite com- 
mon, resembling as nearly as possible the 
carpenter's gouge. 

Hammers and sledges were made as de- 
scribed by Mr. Peale : " By pecUng a groove 
around pebbles of various forms, mostly 
ovoid, and attaching a handle by bending 
around the groove a withe of wood. Over 
the whole was sewed filaments of tendon, 
'rawhide' in a green state, leaving only the 
part to be used exposed, which, after becom- 
ing dry, held all firmly together. This me- 
thod of making a serviceable tool is not con- 
jectural ; such implements are still in use 
among tribes of Indians now existing, made 
exactly as described, and many of the stone 
heads have been found of all sizes, from a 
few ounces in weight to many pounds, as- 
suming the semblance and efficiency of 
sledges or mauls used by modern mechanics. 
We are credibly informed that many of the 

9 



98 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

largest size have been found in excavations 
of aboriginal origin, in the Lake Superior 
copper region, upon masses of native metal, 
bearing marks of their emj^loyment in the 
ungrateful task of detaching fragments for 
use or ornament." 

Flint hiices or cutting implements are 
numerous. They were made by dexterous 
blows with the stone hammer or sledge 
against the edge of a compact finely-grained 
rock, the fracture producing sharp-angled 
chips, with edges almost as keen as a knife. 
The usual material is hormtone or jasper, re- 
sembling what we improperly call flint. The 
knives were used for all the lighter purposes 
of cutting, as far as they could be applied. 
They were employed also in taking off the 
scalps of their enemies, and it is said some 
of the white intruders shared the same fate. 
They no doubt considered this 

" The most unkindest cut of all." 

" It is a curious fact, related by one of our 
early missionaries," says Mr. Heckewelder, 
" that the hair was permitted to grow only 
on the top of the head, thereby affording fa- 



INDIAN RELICS. 



99 



cilities for this barbarous operation. It was 
an act of cowardice in any one permitting 
his hair to grow on other portions of his 
head, as it would be considered as taking 
an undue advantage of his adversary. An- 
other reason given was, that as a man has 
but one head, and as the warrior is distin- 
guished by the number of scalps he brings 
in as trophies, if the Indians permitted the 
hair to grow all over the head as the white 
people do, several scalps might be made out 
of it, which would be unfair. Besides, cow- 
ards might thus without danger, share in the 
trophies of the brave, and dispute with him 
the honor of the victory." 

They commenced pulling out the hair in 
childhood, and in a few years, it is alleged, 
it would cease to grow. The same practice 
was adopted in destroying the beard, hence 
the erroneous opinion that the Indians were 
deprived by nature of that troublesome orna- 
ment to the white man's face. A pair of mus- 
sel shells answered the purpose of tweezers. 

The arrow-points are by far the most nu- 
merous of all the stone implements found in 
the Minisink. It is quite natural they should 
be. They were in more frequent use than 



100 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



any other, and were constantly liable to be 
lost; numbers may have been shot but once. 
The manufacture of arrow-points, then, must 
have occupied a large portion of the time of 
those skilled in the art. Places where they 
were made exhibit spalls and imperfect and 
broken specimens by the bushel. 

The how and arrow were the delight of the 
red man ; they were his constant companions, 
his defence, his support, and his amusement. 
Killing his enemies, killing hh food, and kill- 
ing his time. The stem of the arrow was 
made of wood, and the '^ point" either in- 
serted or tied fast to the end. Two varieties 
are made for this purpose, with and without 
the barb. The string of the bow was made 
of raivJiide. They also employed the fibres 
of the wild flax for bowstrings, fish-nets, and 
other purposes. 

Uncommon accuracy was acquired in the 
use of the bow and arrow ; they could readily 
strike a point the size of a shilling piece at 
my yards distance, provided always, that 
the shilling covered the aforesaid point. 

The sp)ear-h€ads are from three inches to 
eight inches in length, fastened to a staff of 
convenient size and weight, the staff and 



INDIAN RELICS. 101 

point together called a spear, and were the 
same as those now in use in some of the 
countries in Europe, called javelins, except- 
ing that the modern article has a steel point. 
They* were war weapons, and were also 
employed by the Indians in spearing animals 

and fish. 

Hornsione, yellow and red jasper, and chal- 
cedony constitute the material from which 
the spear-heads, as well as the arrow-points, 
were principally made. 

The following description of the manner 
of making the arrow-points and spear-heads 
is taken from the remarks of an eye-witness 
among the Shastas and North California In- 
dians, during that part of the United States 
Exploring Expedition involved in a journey 
by land, after the wreck of the " Peacock," 
from the Columbia River to San Francisco :* 

A blow with a round-faced stone repeated 
upon a mass of jasper, agate, or chalcedony, 
until a flake was broken off of a suitable 
form, and which exhibited the right kind of 
fracture; then the edges were chipped by 

* Mr. T. R. Peale, of the Scientific Corps, U. S. Explor- 
ing Expedition. 

9* 



102 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



the application of a notch in a piece of horn, 
applied as a glazier applies the notches in 
the side of his diamond-handle to the edge 
of a pane of glass for a like purpose. The 
notches Avere of different sizes and depths, 
and much practice was doubtless requisite to 
insure success; as in the localities which fur- 
nished the material, or where it was worked 
(many of which spots have been examined), 
large quantities of flakes, and broken and 
unfinished spear and arrow-heads are found, 
proving that many of the efforts were abor- 
tive, and no exact form or certain result could 
emanate from even practised hands. 

The forms of arrow-heads are very much 
varied : some were made without notches or 
barbs, and are usually called war-arrows; they, 
were attached to the shaft by cement of res- 
inous gum, which, when withdrawn, would 
of necessity leave the head in the wound. 
Others made with barbs or notches were se- 
cured by tendon lashings, in many instances 
put on with extreme neatness and symmetri- 
cal interlacing. 

There is no limit to the variety of forms 
which these stone spear and arrow-heads 
assume. Many of them were rude and rough 



INDIAN RELICS. 103 

as the coarse liornstone of which they were 
made, in fact mere splintered fragments; 
whilst others, on the contrary, are as perfect 
in form as the weapon of the classic Greek, 
and made of the most beautiful jasper or 
chalcedony, almost gem-like in its beauty of 
color and shading. 

There are instances of forms that lead to 
the conviction that novelty is one of the rare 
things of this world, as Solomon knew and 
told us long ago; this allusion is pointed to 
arrow-heads constructed with bevelled faces, 
so formed as to cause revolution in their flight, 
and thus maintain a true direction ; a well- 
known principle employed in the modern 

rifl.e. 

The varieties of the tomahawk are very 
great, and next to the arrow-point, are also 
the most numerous of all the articles obtained. 
Some of the forms are extremely rude. A 
half-rounded pebble of slate or sandstone was 
selected, corresponding in some degree to the 
required form, which being notched on op- 
posite sides, a handle was fastened in the 
same manner as upon the axe and hammer. 

On these simplest forms, no other work 
than the notching or cutting of the sides has 



104 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

been performed, and as the tomahawk ap- 
pears to have been the constant companion 
of every Indian man and boy, these ruder 
varieties may have been the work of the 
latter. Those skilled in the art of making 
tools and other implements must have been 
exempt from the duties of war and the chase, 
and allowed to pursue their regular occupa- 
tion, in order to enable them to arrive at the 
degree of perfection in the art exhibited in 
some of these specimens. Such skilful arti- 
sans possessed of course a reputation which 
they would not allow to be injured by the 
production of such rude forms as we find 
classed among the list of tomahawks. 

The rougher specimens are found in almost 
every field near the river, whilst those so 
beautifully and symmetrically wrought, with 
holes perforated through the centre' and 
which are supposed to have been worn on the 
person, and kept in view, as badges to distin- 
guish certain warriors, are not by any means 
so abundant. 

The method of drilling the hard material 
—sandstone and jasper— of which the finer 
articles are made, as conceived and experi- 



INDIAN RELICS. 



105 



mented on by Mr. Peale, is, no doubt, the 
true method. 

It is described by him as follows: 
" The ordinary holes are mere perforations, 
made by revolving a sharp-pointed flake of 
jasper, hornstone, or other hard stone, upon 
the object to be perforated, usually slate, 
limestone, or soapstone, the perforation being 
made from opposite sides, until the opening 
met at the middle ; but in other and more 
finished works, such as those made for the 
insertion of handles in tomahawks and ham- 
mers, and more remarkably in smoking pipes, 
and the tubes which were probably used for 
that purpose, there is no reason to doubt that 
these holes were made by nearly the same 
means, and identically the same principles 
that are now used to drill glass and the hard- 
est gems. A round stick of soft wood was 
revolved by rubbing the hands against it in 
opposite directions, with silicious sand and 
water continually renewed between the end 
of the stick and\he article to be bored. 

'^A further supposition is not unreason- 
able, that a bowstring loosely drawn and 
passed around the stick, would give increased 
motion and more rapid effect to the process. 



106 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



" The pages of Schoolcraft describe and 
illustrate similar arrangements in use among 
existing tribes, for producing fire by rapid 
friction." 

In the department of personal ornaments 
are found some of the most finely executed 
of all the specimens of Indian craft. Not 
only the highest skill of the workman was 
required in the production of this class of 
articles, but his taste and judgment were 
also put to the test. 

To produce a necklace of quartz beads, 
finely i3olished and perforated, with the 
meagre appliances at their command, must 
have required long, patient, and skilful labor. 
A great variety of ornaments were made of 
clay, shells, and the softer stones, in the 
similitude of flowers, birds, and insects. 

If fiishions then, like as at the present 
day, changed often, and new devices and 
different material were required at each whim 
of the fickle goddess, it must have been a 
severe tax upon the labor and ingenuity of 
the "personal ornament" makers. 

The fictile art was extensively practised. 
Fragments of earthen-made articles are found 



INDIAN RELICS. 



107 



in almost every field near the river, in the 

Minisink. 

The material was prepared by pounding 
certain kinds of shells and mixing with suit- 
able moistened clay; having dried this com- 
pound in the shade, it was then burned in 
the oven or kiln made for the purpose, and 
became hard, and would stand exposure to 

the fire. 

The earthen pots are made of various sizes, 
holding from a pint to several gallons. The 
larger ones were used, among other purposes, 
for boiling the sap for maple sugar. Of the 
same material were made pitchers, vases, 
bowls, plates, &c. 

Unbroken articles of earthenware are now 
rarely met with, but fragments, sometimes 
in large pieces, are found in quantities, 
some of these showing a degree of taste and 
skill in ornamentation. The earthen vessels 
supplied a desideratum; as the manufacture 
of these articles was not by any means the 
first of the stone age. Ruder nations cooked 
their food without the use of pots. This 
process was simple in the extreme, though 
quite ingenious: 



108 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

"When meat was to be boiled, a hole was 
dug in the ground, about the size of a com- 
mon pot, and a piece of the raw hide of the 
animal, as taken from his back, was put in 
the hole and pressed down with the hands 
close around the sides, and filled with water. 
At a fire which was built near by, several 
large stones were heated, which were succes- 
sively dipped in the water until the meat 
was cooked." 

Smoking was a habitquite prevalent among 
the Indians. The pipe or calumet was carved 
of stone or modelled in clay. Some of the 
latter are rude in form and structure, whilst 
others are artistic in design and elaborate 
in finish. The front of the bowl is often 
carved with devices representing sometimes 
the human face and various animals. 

The calumet used in councils contains gen- 
erally an emblem of the tribe represented. 
These are large and wrought with skill, and 
the long reed stem ornamented with gay 
feathers. It is used only on occasions of 
state, and when the deliberations are ended 
is handed from one to the other, commencing 
with those highest in authority. 

It is used as a symbol or instrument of 



INDIAN RELICS. 109 

peace or war. To accept the " calumet " is 
to agree to the terms of peace, and to refuse, 
is to reject them. The calumet of peace is 
used to seal or ratify contracts and alliances, 
to receive strangers kindly, and io travel 
with safety. The calumet of war, differently 
made, is used to proclaim war. 

At the council held in Philadelphia, in 
1758, Teedyuscung, the chief of the Dela- 
wares, addressed Governor Denny as follows: 

"The Governor, and all you wise men pres- 
ent, hearken to what I am going to say : At 
the treaty at Easton, you desired me to hear 
you and publish what passed there to all the 
Indian nations. I promised you to do it ; I 
gave the Halloo, and published it to all the 
Indian nations in this part of the world, even 
the most distant have heard me. 

" The nations to whom I published what 
passed between us have let me, Teedyus- 
cung, know that they heard and approved 
it, and as I am about so good a work, they 
sent this p/y^e, the same that their grand- 
fathers used on such good occasions, and de- 
sired it might be filled with the same good 
tobacco, and that I, with my brother, the 
Governor, would smoke it. 

10 



110 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

" They further assured me that if at any 
time I should perceive any dark clouds arise, 
and would smoke but two or three whiffs out 
of this pipe, those clouds would immediately 
disappear." 

The next day Governor Denny replied as 
follows : 

'^ Brother : I smoked with a great deal of 
pleasure out of the pipe that the far Indians, 
formerly our good friends, sent you on this 
joyful occasion, and I must now desire you 
for them, as you represent them, to smoke 
out of my pipe, in which I have put some 
very good tobacco, such as our ancestors 
used to smoke together, and was at first 
planted here when this country was settled 
by Onas (William Penn). 

'' We have found by experience that what- 
ever nations smoked out of it two or three 
hearty ^whifis,' the clouds that were between 
us always dispersed, and so they will again, 
as often as they arise, if these Indians will 
smoke heartily of it." 

Here the Governor smoked and gave it to 
Teedvuscunsr. 

The cJothmg of the Indians was almost en- 
tirely made from the skins of animals, and 



INDIAN RELICS. Ill 

their conical-shaped "wigwams" were also 
covered with the same material. 

They possessed the knowledge of dressing 
skins in such a way as made them pliable. 
An Indian damsel, with the underdress of 
the fawn, and a robe in winter of the match- 
less fur of the heaver, was very comfortably, 
if not imposingly dressed. 

Reference cannot here be made to the cus- 
ioms of these people : to do so would exceed 
the limits designed. 

Mr. Heckewelder says : 

" When the Indians were first visited by 
the whites, and after our people commenced 
to erect houses among them, they thought 
very strangely of the white people locking 
their doors, and could not for some time be 
made to understand the motive. When they 
left their homes they set up a pestle or com- 
pounder against the outside of the door, 
which was enough to show that there was no 
one at home, and the premises were then 
considered sacred, no one thinking of enter- 
ing the house. Missionaries have recorded, 
that as kite as 1771 they have known large 
quantities of goods received from traders 
protected in no other way.' 



112 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

All accounts represent the war-dances as 
frightful and terrible to behold. They are 
always performed previous to going out to 
an engagement, around a painted post, a sort 
of " recruiting station." It must have been 
frightful too to witness the Indian warriors 
return home after a successful engagement, 
with their prisoners and the scalps taken in 
battle. These last were carried in front, 
strung on a pole, behind which came the 
victorious column, rending the air with 
shouts. The dwelling of each warrior was 
ornamented with these terrible memorials of 
victory, together with all the accoutrements 
of warfare, skins of animals, &c. 

" Thus all around the walls to grace, 
Hung trophies of the fight or chase; 
A target there, a bugle here, 
A battle-axe, a hunting-spear. 
And war-clubs, bows and arrows, store. 
With tusked trophies of the boar. 
Here grins the wolf as when he died, 
And there the wild cat's brindle hide 
The frontlets of the elk adorns. 
Or mantles o'er the bison's horns ; 
Strange devices, defaced and stained, 
The crimsoned streaks of blood retained. 
And deer-skins, dappled, dun and white, 
With otter's fur, and seals unite. 
In rude and uncouth trappings all. 
To garnish forth the warriors' hall." 



INDIAN RELICS. 113 

To jugglers^ soothsayers^ conjurors^ astrolo- 
gers, and all the long list of impostors of 
that character, the poor Indians gave too 
much countenance. Besides the regular 
physicians, they had their quack doctors 
also, and were almost as badly afflicted in 
that respect as the present generation. On a 
small scale they had their Brandreth, Ayres, 
Hembold, Wishart, ad infinitum, and may 
also, perhaps, have had a type of that volu- 
ble, yet mythical personage, Mrs. Winslow. 

The Lenapes were present in great num- 
bers, Mr. Heckewelder says, at the landing 
of the Hollanders at Manhattan (New York), 
in 1620, and some traditions of the event 
w^ere still preserved by their people. 

They supposed the vessel at first to be a 
whale, then a great bird resting on the waters, 
and as it approached nearer supposed it to 
be a house drifting to the shore, but were 
terror-stricken when they saw the men de- 
scend and come in small boats to the land. 

They looked upon these men as messen- 
gers sent from the Great Spirit to destroy 
them. They fled in numbers to the wilder- 
ness, others prostrated themselves to the 

10* 



114 



DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



earth, and filled the air with cries and lamen- 
tations. 

It was a long time before the captain could 
cause them to become reconciled, and assure 
them by signs, that they were only men, like 
themselves, and intended them no harm. 

By the bestowal of a few presents on the 
part of the sagacious officers, they soon won 
the hearts of these simple-minded people, 
and the god-like strangers were made wel- 
come to the homes of the red men with 
joyful demonstrations. 

It is not very creditable to our Holland 
ancestors, that this ceremony was terminated 
in a general scene of intoxication. 

The liquor was at first partaken of with 
hesitation and distrust, and was utterly re- 
fused, until the officers and crew first set the 
vicious example. 

In commemoration of this event, the 
Indians named the place Manahachtanieuk 
(Manhattan), the island where we all got 
drunk. 



INDIAN GRAVES. 115 

Indian Graves. 

LAKE OF THE MOUNTAIN. 

In the year 1811, John Arndt, of Easton, 
wrote to the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder concern- 
ing an Indian grave found at this solitary 
spot, near the shore of the hake. He was 
buried in a stone vault, " the rock having 
been rent apart for a considerable length, 
and wide enough to admit the body, and 
covered with large flat stones. With the 
skeleton were found a small brass kettle, 
some beads, some circular bones or ivory of 
the size of a silver dollar, pierced with two 
holes through the diameter ; also a parcel of 
bone or ivory tubes, resembling pipe-stems, 
four and a half inches in length. Nearly 
opposite, down the mountain from this grave, 
on the flats or lowland, there was a large 
Indian burial-ground. Could this spot have 
been the special choice of this solitary in- 
habitant? Here was a lake with plenty of 
fish, abundance of large whortleberries, ex- 
cellent hunting-grounds, &c. Can it be pre- 
sumed that he was a noted chief or warrior 
to whom such distinguished respect was 



IIG DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

paid, as to deposit him so much nearer 
heaven and the Great Spirit ?" 

Several years ago, the author visited the 
Indian burial-ground at the base of the 
mountain alluded to in the letter of Mr. 
Arndt. It is situated about seven miles 
north of the Gap, on an elevation of two 
hundred or three hundred feet from the river, 
which it overlooks, together with a beauti- 
ful portion of the Valley of the Delaware. 
The ground had then just been cleared for 
cultivation, the forest trees had yielded to 
the axemen, and the virgin soil, so long held 
sacred by another race, was about to be vio- 
lated with the plough. Three graves had 
already been opened, but a number of mounds 
were visible all over the field before the 
plough had done its work. The articles ob- 
tained from the three which I saw, were as 
follows : A large quantity of beads, variously 
colored, of stone and glass, and others of 
bone. Several clay ornaments, rounded and 
in shape like the beads, but larger, pierced 
through the centre ; the image of an owl 
made of clay, and several round pieces of 
clay and bone aBout the size of an American 
half-dollar, dotted round the edge and twice 



INDIAN GRAVES. 



117 



through the centre. A great number of 
pieces of clay pipe, and fragments of other 
articles, so broken as to be undefined. In 
one of the graves some small bells were 
found, also fragments of blankets, the me- 
tallic remains of two guns, brass plates con- 
taining the crucifix, brass tobacco-boxes, &c. 
This was evidently a modern burial, as the 
articles must have been obtained from Eu- 
ropeans, as well as the glass beads mentioned 

above. 

The place was visited by some gentlemen 
stopping at the Gap last summer, and per- 
mission given by the owner of the field to 
make excavations. One grave was found 
about three feet below the surface and ex- 
humed. The skeleton was incased in a 
stone box. But few relics were obtained. 

The following extracts from a letter writ- 
ten by a gentleman who, with others, visit- 
ed the Indian burial-place near the Gap, in 
the autumn of 1865, is deemed not out of 
place in this connection. The letter was 
published in the North American and United 
States Gazette: 

" A portion of the company now pleasant- 
ly sojourning here, treated themselves to- 



118 DELAWARE WATEK GAP. 

day to an excursion somewhat different from 
climbing Mount Minsi, Prospect Rock, the 
Indian Ladder, or even revelling at that 
crystal fount, Rebecca's Well, or that still 
more beautiful spot, Caldeno Falls. They 
visited and explored an Indian cemetery, 
where those who lived and loved, w^arred 
and hunted, in long anterior days, have lain 
in quiet, and, until recently, undisturbed 
repose. 

" The site of this early cemetery is on the 
point of an elevated diluvial plain above the 
mouth of Brodhead's Creek. The plateau 
is about ninety feet above the river level, 
and embraces, perhaps, four acres. The 
view is very fine, commanding the Delaware, 
Shawanee Island, Cherry Valley, and the 
superb scenery along the outlying arms of 
the grand old Kittatinny. The nomadic 
tribes who occupied these beautiful and fer- 
tile valleys exhibited fliultless taste in se- 
lecting the spot they did for the repose of 
their kindred. 

" Of the wild tribes who once plied the 
light canoe on the Maccariskittang, and 
hunted their game along the Minisink, we 
have positive information of the Shawanees 



INDIAN GRAVES. 119 

and Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares. The 
tawny warriors,— Titans of a dark and mys- 
tic race,— have left here the impress of their 
great and imperishable names. Mountain, 
valley, river, and purling brook bear the 
record of many a stalworth brave. 

« Various localities of interest are pointed 
out as the sites of Indian villages and burial- 
.rrounds; but of what particular tribe or 
nation, not even tradition or legendary song 
can tell.* One of these early cemeteries 
has long been regarded with interest by vis- 
itors to the Gap and residents of the neigh- 
borhood. In vain, however, did those desi- 
rous of exploring it apply for permission to 
the proprietor of the soil. But the love ot 
gain proved stronger than dread of supersti- 
tious awe, and a few years since certain par- 
ties met, not having the fear of Mr. Zimmer- 
man or ghouls or goblins before their eyes, 
and under the cover of night and a dense 
young forest, perpetrated that which men of 
science had ineffectually attempted. The 
night despoilers had roughly but surely done 

* The Minsi, a branch of the Lenape Indians, inhabited 
this portion of the Valley of the Delaware. The Shuwances 
were mere sojourners here.— L. W. B. 



120 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

the work of exhumation in several of these 
interesting memorials of the dead. The 
parties who had despoiled the graves were 
actuated by a single motive, — gain. They 
hoped to secure valuable relics, which could 
be sold to curiosity-gatherers from the cities. 
Some of these ill-got gains were offered to 
gentlemen of intelligence and probity whom 
I have seen, who declined to purchase. 
Others, however, in quest of ^curiosities, 
did buy. It may not positively be known 
what articles have been taken from the de- 
spoiled graves, but I have been informed 
that among the articles found was a finely 
wrought stone pipe. 

" With this digression, I will give a brief 
account of our oj)erations to-day. 

" We found the cemetery composed of nu- 
merous ' graves,' in close proximity to one 
another. These were scarcely distinguish- 
able, so slight is the elevation. Each grave 
is encircled by a trench, and a group of some 
half a dozen had evidently been surrounded 
by a gravel ditch. The circumvallation was 
quite distinct. 

" Selecting an undisturbed sjDot, we put a 
couple of stout men to work. Removino- 



INDIAN GRAVES. 121 

the soil, we were convinced human agency 
had been at work. Instead of the gravel, 
which marks the diluvial, we found a coarse 
yellow sand, intermingled with clay. At 
the depth of about two and a half feet, we 
found an ulna, or some other parts of a hu- 
man frame. The skeleton was in tolerable 
preservation. The cranium is in good con- 
dition, with the exception of a portion of 
the right superior maxillary, which appeared 
missing. The teeth are in good preserva- 
tion, but much worn by the use of maize. 
The sections indicate a person of about mid- 
dle age. The frame was large, and doubt- 
less that of a male. The mode of burial had 
been by inhumation ; placing the body in a 
recumbent posture, extending from east to 
west, the face looking eastward. A slight 
cist had been excavated, which received the 
body, free from cement or stone incasement, 
and having placed with it the few personal 
articles which ornamented it in life, a care- 
ful covering of sand was made to the height 
of the cist, and terminating in a small tumu- 
lus. The sand had evidently been carried 
from the river's beach, as it is not found at 
a nearer point. This is a peculiarity, and 

11 



122 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

worth attention. Respect for the dead would 
not permit him to be buried in the coarse 
gravel of the plain where the graves are 
located. 

" Of the articles of personal adornment 
recovered were parts of two metallic orna- 
ments, brooches, or ear-drops, found in close 
proximity to the head. Thej are an alloy, 
pewter perhaps, circular in form, and two 
inches in diameter. Also, two spiral wire 
sprigs of brass, one inch in length and half 
an inch in diameter, and three bone or shell 
beads, one quite large. These are by far 
the most valuable and interesting relics re- 
covered, as they are purely aboriginal, while 
the metallic articles are of European fabri- 
cation. In addition to those discovered was 
the rude form of a pocket-knife, but so oxid- 
ized as to be almost undistinguishable. Of 
course, these articles, with the exception of 
the bone beads, are of white men's manu- 
facture, and utterly valueless to the archaa- 
ologist. The occupant of this humble tomb 
lived after interviews had been established 
between the whites and Indians. This dis- 
covery dispelled all illusions of great anti- 
quity. It was interesting, however, as show- 



INDIAN GRAVES. 123 

ing the mode of burial practised by the wild 
tribes who roamed these forests at the j)eriod 
of settlement by the whites. Such discov- 
eries are valuable to science, and the gentle- 
men who made the researches considered 
themselves amply remunerated for their trou- 
ble. 

" The cranium is worthy the attention of 
ethnologists. It is properly orthognathous, 
resembling the round-headed Calmuck, fig- 
ured by Huxley. The forehead is tolerably 
full, the zygomatic processes prominent, but 
not the maxillary and orbital conforma- 
tions which distinguish the common Indian. 
These indicia, with a fair facial angle, might 
raise a doubt with some as to the true char- 
acter of the person buried, were it not for 
counterbalancing proofs. Part of the right 
superior maxillary being gone, it is some- 
what difficult to determine how much of a 
prognathous form there may be, which is an 
almost unfailing characteristic of all noma- 
dic races. I write these hasty notes with- 
out having given the skull a careful exami- 
nation. Perhaps further examination may 
support some additional facts. It is in pos- 



124 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

session of my friend, L. W. Brodhead, Esq., 
and will constitute a feature in his collection 
of antiquities for this locality. To Mr. B. 
the public are mainly indebted for these ex- 
plorations." 



LEGENDS. 



Winona ; or, The Story of Lover^s Leap, 

AN HISTORICAL LEGEND. 

"She loves, — but knows not whom she loves, 
Nor what his race, nor wh(?nee he came ; 
Like one who meets, in Indian groves, 
Some beauteous bird without a name, 
Brought by the last ambrosial breeze. 
From isles in th' undiscover'd seas, 
To show his plumage for a day 
To wondering eyes, and wings away." 

Moore. 

Two centuries ago there reigned, in the 
valley of the Minisink, a noble chieftain 
named Wissinoming. He was the head of 
that once most powerful and ancient people, 
known as the " Lenni Lenape." Their pos- 
sessions extended from the highest sources 
of the rivers Delaware and Susquehanna 
to the ocean, and every valley and hill- 

11* ( 125 ) 



126 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

top drained by their tributaries echoed the 
praises of Len ape's chieftain.* 

The Lower Minisink was the headquarters 
of this nation. Here Wissinoming resided, 
and here emanated the decrees dispatched 
by fleet-footed couriers, in case of war or 
apprehended danger, or signalled by " fire- 
lights" kindled on a hundred hill-tops,f 
which reassured, and thus preserved the 
unity of the confederate tribes. For how 
many centuries Wissinoming's ancestors 
reigned in this beautiful valley, and plied 
their boats on these quiet waters, and chased 
the deer in these forests, and defied their 
enemies in these rocky fastnesses, and wor- 
shipped on these mountain-heights, time 
will never reveal to us. And when the red 



* " The compound word Lenni Lenape signifies ' original 
people,' a race of beings who are the same that they were 
from the beginning, acknowledged by near forty Indian 
tribes as being their grandfathers. All these tribes, derived 
from the same stock, recognize each other as Wapanachki or 
Lenape, which among them is a generic name.'' — Hecke- 
welder. 

f It is a well-established fact that "signal lights " were 
used by the Indians, and that important intelligence was 
communicated from one eminence to another, hundreds of 
miles away, with the certainty, and almost the celerity, of 
electricity. The adoption of a similar system proved of great 
importance to our army in the late Kebellion. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 127 

man first visited the shores of our continent. 



whether before or after the departure of the 
Israelites from Egypt, is not material to our 
present story. 

Winona was the beloved and only daugh- 
ter of Wissinoming. She and her brother 
Manatamany were the pride of this noble 
chieftain, and were the objects of his greatest 
care and solicitude ; all the instruction that 
a wise but uncultivated parent could impart 
were bestowed on these children. They, 
consequently, grew up at least free from the 
ruder habits of their people, and Winona 
manifested a character of great strength and 
beauty. Her father had impressed her with 
the fact, that she was of the descent of a 
noble race of chieftains, and that her people 
could claim great antiquity, and she readily 
saw that they were greatly superior to all 
the other tribes whose representatives at 
times visited her father's home. 

The Lenape were bold and fearless, but 
considerate and just; and having enjoyed 
years of peace, paid some attention to the 
cultivation of the soil, and were acquiring 
habits bordering on civilization ; and when 
the whites first appeared among them, that 



128 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

civilization was ready to dawn. The first 
settlers were, therefore, received with open 
arms. They continued their friendly inter- 
course, and were not averse to their per- 
manent residence amongst them. The im- 
proved methods to promote comfortable 
existence by the new-comers, their ready 
discernment led them to at least appreciate, 
if not to adopt, and all that was now needed 
was fair and honorable dealing ; and had the 
policy of the elder Penn been continued, 
it is fair to presume that the Lenape would 
have at this day existed in this valley, a 
comparatively enlightened and cultivated 
people. 

The first appearance of the whites was 
only to explore the country. They were 
from the Holland settlement on the Hud- 
son. They found a considerable extent of 
land under cultivation, and were delighted 
with its appearance, and with the friendship 
manifested by the natives, and soon there- 
after arrangements were made for the intro- 
duction of a colony. A number of fiimilies 
at length arrived, and formed the first set- 
tlement in the Minisink country, and per- 
haps in the State. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 129 

Winona seemed to be drawn instinctively 
to the society of the cultivated ladies form- 
ing the settlement. On account of her po- 
sition as the daughter of an illustrious chief, 
she was well received. Her beauty of per- 
son, her dignified but gentle manners, her 
desire to learn of the white ladies and adopt 
their customs, soon made her a great favor- 
ite, and she came to be styled by them, Prin- 
cess Winona. She continued to be ever after 
the firm friend of the whites, and proved 
herself, on more than one occasion, a very 
Pocahontas, indeed. 

The exploring party, just named, with 
the prevailing thirst for gold, had discovered 
in the mountain at Pahaqualong, a few miles 
above, evidences of what they supposed to 
be a rich mine of copper, and the informa- 
tion having been forwarded to their mother 
country, a company was speedily formed 
under the auspices of the Holland Govern- 
ment, and an expedition fitted out and placed 
in charge of a young man of rank named 
Hendrick Van Allen.* He was a gentle- 

* These mines were worked to a considerable extent, but 
with what success is not known. They are situated near the 
base of the Kittatinny Mountain, eight miles above the Dei- 



130 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

man of fine accomplishments, pleasing ad- 
dress, and fair exterior, full of adventure, 
and the kind of wild frontier life he was for 
a time obliged to lead, seemed well suited to 
his inclinations. He soon became accus- 
tomed to the hardships incident to a life 
where few evidences of civilization were to 
be witnessed, much less enjoyed. 

He visited the settlement a few miles be- 
low, soon after his arrival, and there heard, 
at the house of one of the colonists, the ftxme 
of the " Indian Princess." The thought of 
Prince or Princess had not entered Hen- 
drick's mind since he left the land of civil- 
ization, and he supposed himself now far 
beyond the influences of nobility; hence 
to hear of an embryo " Queen " in this re- 
mote wilderness struck him as rather ludi- 
crous. He, however, promised his friend 
to see her when he visited the settlement 
again. 

aware Water Gap, on the New Jersey side of the river. A 
company was organized, about twenty j'ears ago, in New 
York, for the purpose of re-working them, but failed of suc- 
cess. When thoy commenced operations, they found large 
trees growing upon places where excavations had been made 
nearly two hundred years before. The place is now called 
PaJiaquarri, a corruption of " Pahaqualong," the original 
name. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 131 

The young adventurer having satisfied 
his own mind that about one-half of the 
Kittatinny Mountain was composed of cop- 
per ore, he commenced the construction 
of the Great Wagon Road from Pah aqua- 
long to the Hudson River, a distance of one 
hundred miles. Whilst this work was in 
progress, he employed himself in the sports 
of t'he chase. He fancied himself an expert 
in the use of the rifle, and found the wald 
game as abundant as he could wish. 

At Hendrick's next visit to the settle- 
ment, he met the young " Princess " at the 
house of his friend, where, ever since their 
arrival, she had been a frequent and wel- 
come visitor. Hendrick expected to see in 
the daughter of the famous chief less rude- 
ness of manner, perhaps, than in the other 
daughters of the forest ; but he w^as unpre- 
pared for what he now witnessed. 

Winona's modesty, refinement, and dig- 
nified deportment were unaccountable to 
him ; and though he had heard her beauty 
highly praised, she far excelled in his mind 
the most favorable descriptions given of her. 
Not having measured the character of her 
mind, he introduced such conversation as 



132 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

he thought adapted to her understanding 
and suited to her inclinations. He spoke of 
tlje enjoyment he had experienced in imi- 
tating the free and unrestrained life of her 
people ; the excitement of the chase ; the un- 
bounded park filled with game that had not 
yet learned to flee at the report of his gun, and 
was not too modest to mention the skill he 
had acquired in its use by frequent practice. 
Winona, though accustomed to the wild 
sports of her people, and confident of her 
skill in the use of the bow and arrow, hav- 
ing often employed them as an exercise and 
an amusement, was more modest in the esti- 
mate of her prowess ; and Hendrick learned, 
too, from the tenor of her conversation, that 
there were other themes better suited to the 
character of Winona's mind, and more pleas- 
ing for her contemplation. A friendship, 
very natural under the circumstances, was 
at once formed, and Hendrick henceforward 
fancied that the better hunting-grounds were 
in the direction of the new settlement and 
Winona's home. 

Not long after this event the old chief 
Wissinoming died. It was the saddest pe- 
riod of Winona's life. She grieved, not only 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 133 

on account of her own loss, but she mourned 
also the loss her nation had sustained. The 
affairs of her people were in a critical con- 
dition. The Lenape had been invaded by 
some tribes from the North, and though the 
latter had been severely chastised during 
her father's reign, Winona and her brother, 
Manatamany, feared a renewal of hostili- 
ties. 

The following incidents, though having 
no direct connection in this narrative, are 
still important, as relating to the Lenape 
nation, and on that account their recital 
will, perhaps, be justified. 

The power of the Lenape was undis- 
puted, and they had enjoyed untold years 
of undisturbed quiet; but before the reign 
of Wissinoming, a cloud had gathered in 
the North. Some ambitious tribes had com- 
menced invading their territory, and though 
they had always been repulsed with severe 
losses, the Lenape were at length confronted 
by that powerful union of hostile tribes, 
composed of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Sen- 
ecas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, 
and known as the " Six Nations." The 
clouds that had been gathering culminated, 

12 



134 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

and a terrific storm burst upon the devoted 
heads of the Lenape. The war raged for 
many years, witli varying success ; the peo- 
ple of the Minisink maintained their an- 
cient prestige, though other portions of the 
Lenape nation were forced to succumb, or 
accept annihilation. It was not until near 
the middle of the eighteenth century, when 
the Six Nations received the countenance 
and encouragement of the whites, that the 
Minsi, — the elder sons and occupants of the 
ancient heritage of the Lenape, — yielded to 
power and intrigue. The conduct of cer- 
tain of the whites at the memorable conven- 
tions held at Philadelphia and Easton, — 
where the Delawares (as they were now 
called) were browbeaten and disgraced, and 
their chief, on one occasion, led out of the 
convention by the hair of his head by an 
upstart of the Six Nations, — is unaccount- 
able upon any other hypothesis, than that 
by the dispersion of the Delawares, and by 
the encouragement extended to the Six Na- 
tions, they could more readily gain posses- 
sion of territory to which neither themselves 
nor the Six Nations had a shadow of claim. 
It has been alleged that the Delaware 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 135 

chief behaved cowardly on this occasion. 
The assertion is unwarranted by the facts. 
Surrounded by enemies greatly superior in 
numbers to his own people, and who were 
supported by the w^ealth and influence of 
the English, he well knew that resistance 
would end in the destruction of his remain- 
ing followers. Hence, the course he pur- 
sued is such as a wise man would have 
adopted. 

At a subsequent council, held at Easton, 
it is said, " the English had made so many 
presents to the Six Nations, that they would 
hear no explanations from the Delawares." 
Well might Tedyuskung have said, with 
reference to the whites, " And you, too, mij 
hrothers /" 

To the credit of William Penn and his true 
followers, be it ever remembered, that they 
did not desert the Delawares in their ex- 
tremity, but stood up for them on all occa- 
sions, and condemned the unjust treatment 
they received. 

The subjugation of this people, and their 
exile from the Valley of the Delaware, form 
one of the saddest episodes in the history of 
nations. Is it to be wondered that they 



136 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

lingered long npon the waters of their favor- 
ite river? That they viewed with terror, 
from the heights of the Kittatinny, the ap- 
proach of the white man to take possession 
of the homes they were compelled by their 
enemies to abandon ? To be despoiled of 
all they held dear, even the places made 
sacred by the dead of centuries? I fancy 
I can see them as they meet in the last hur- 
ried council : no fire is kindled ; no glad 
voices are heard ; no songs of mirth and 
rejoicing, naught but a saddening wail, the 
requiem of departing glory. The corn and 
dried venison are collected together. The 
aged chief, who has cheered his followers in 
the thick strife of contending hosts, now 
trembles with emotion at his exile from the 
land he loves. Hear him, for his utterance 
is choked : " Let us take a last lingering 
look as the departing rays of light are shed 
upon the Blue Hills, and then go hence to 
that strange land, whilst the sun sleeps be- 
hind the mountain, that the white robber 
may not laugh at our tears." 

This digression has led to a view of the 
condition of the Lenapes, nearly a century 
subsequent to the main incidents of our 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 137 

story. At the death of Wissinoining, Man- 
atamany was looked upon as the natural 
and legitimate successor to his father, whom 
he much resembled in strength of mind and 
heroic deportment. Being younger, how- 
ever, than his sister Winona, she was looked 
up to as the " guardian angel " of her people; 
and as much consulted in matters of state as 
her brother. To add to their other troubles, 
a serious outbreak now occurred between a 
portion of their people and the colonists, in 
which a young man, a favorite of the col- 
onists, was killed. Much excitement was 
manifested by both parties. The cause of 
the quarrel was the attempted occupancy 
and cultivation, on the part of the settlers, 
of the Great Shawano Island opposite the 
Indian town of Wyomissing. This island 
was a favorite resort of the Indians, and was 
a cherished part of their possessions. Its 
great productiveness* excited the cupidity 

* That these islands in the Delaware, as well as the adja- 
cent main land, were under cultivation by the Indians, there 
is scarcely a doubt remaining. The evidence of the early 
settlers on the subject is confirmed by the disco ver}', a few 
years ago, on Shawnee Island, of a dozen or more articles of 
the s(o7id o.ge, differing from those ordinarily found, which, 
on being submitted to Mr. Franklin Peale, of Philadelphia, — 

12* 



138 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

of the colonists, and frequent attempts had 
been made for its i3urchase ; but no offer, 
however liberal, would be entertained for a 
moment. In the quarrel Manatamany took 
no part, though his heart was with his peo- 
ple. Winona, the friend of the colonists, as 
well as the beloved oracle of her own na- 
tion, was looked to by the friends of peace 
in both parties, as the only ho23e of an ami- 
cable settlement of the difficulty. Winona 
felt the responsibility of her position, but 
did not shrink from the performance of her 
duty. 

The town of Wyomissing was the ancient 
home of the Lenape chieftains. In front of 
the lodge of Winona and her brother, were 
assembled the excited multitude. On the 
rocky parapet, bordering her little flower- 
garden, stood the Queen of the Forest, the 
heroine and orator of the occasion ; to her, 
all eyes were directed ; to her, all were ready 
to listen with reverence, and now waited in 
breathless silence the Sibylline utterances : 

^' Winona is the daughter of Wissinom- 

perhaps the best authority on this subject in the country, — 
were unhesitatingly pronounced implements of agriculture, 
answering the purpose of our common hoe. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 139 



ing, who lies sleeping on yonder liill-top, 
overlooking the waters of Lenape's river. 
The island, the cause of this quarrel, also 
lies before him. For how many centuries 
Wissinoming's fathers reigned in the Mini- 
sink, Winona knoweth not; but the moons 
will count in number as the hairs of Wi- 
nona's head. Winona's father sometimes 
speaks from the spirit-land, and Winona 
hears his words of love and wisdom in the 
whispering winds. She listens to catch the 
music of his voice to-day ; but the winds do 
not speak, and Winona's heart is heavy with 
grief. Winona loves the people of her fathers, 
and desires to do them good. She rejoices 
in their successes, and mourns over their 
misfortunes. Their song of joy, or wail of 
grief, is echoed in Winona's heart. Winona's 
heart is sad now ! Winona loves her white 
neighbors also, and hoped to live with them 
in peace and friendship forever. Their ladies 
are kind and gentle to W^inona, and have 
taught her many ways that Winona loves, 
and filled her mind with many wonderful 
thoughts that are beautiful, and that Wi- 
nona dreamed not of. Winona's heart is 
very sad ! The weight of grief would melt 



140 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

in tears, but Winona cannot weep now. 
Winona loves not strife nor bloodshed ; but 
Winona is not herself afraid to die. 

'^ A young man has been slain by our 
people. He was much beloved by our neigh- 
bors. Who committed the fatal deed we 
know not. It is but justice, and according 
to the custom of our own nation, that his 
death should be avenged, and one of our 
number be offered to appease the just wrath 
of our neighbors. Winona is not afraid to 
die ! Hear, then, what Winona saith : On 
the morrow, on the first wake of the morn- 
ing, before the sun shows his face from be- 
hind the hills of the Kittatinny, let Winona 
be slain by the hands of her own people, 
and let her be buried beside her noble father, 
Wissinoming. Let Hendrick be called from 
the mountain ; let him raise Winona's head, 
as in the custom of the burial of my people,"^' 
that the earth may rest lightly upon it, and 
let him pray to his God for the spirit of 
Winona. The Shawano Island is loved by 
our people. It is fair to I'ook upon, and the 

* It was the custom of the Indians to bury distinguished 
persons of their own tribe with the head elevated to nearly 
a sitting posture, and to encase the body in a stone box. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER's LEAP. 141 



corn has ripened upon it for my people for 
more summers than the numbers of our na- 
tion. Winona's canoe has passed many 
times around it, and touched at every shore. 

'-' The white man must not take it from 
my people ; but let my good brother give to 
them the Island Manwallaminh^ and may 
the dove of peace descend, and hover over 
the people of my fathers and our white 
neighbors forever!" 

A saddening wail, mingled with murmurs 
of discontent, rose upon the still air, and 
Manatamany essayed to give utterance to 
these incoherent mutterings ; but the shouts 
of the colonists drowned his voice: " Wi- 
nona must not, shall not die! She shall live 
to bless us and you ! We ask no sacrifice ; 
we only ask, that if it please Manatamany, 
Winona may be adopted as our sister, and 
be to us, as to you, a princess and ' guardian 

This interesting event proved most aus- 
picious ; years of uninterrupted friendship 
followed, and, indeed, its influence was never 
entirely lost upon either the natives or the 
colonists. The settlement increased in num- 
bers, and amity reigned, and an apparent de- 



142 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

sire to benefit the condition of each by the 
other manifested itself upon all occasions. 
How easily this policy might have been 
continued, and how glorious would have 
been its results ! All that was now needed 
was honesty of purpose, and a little forbear- 
ance. How readily on all occasions might 
the truths of the Christian religion be in- 
troduced among a people who are strangers 
to its teachings, if its beautiful precepts 
were practised by those desiring its promul- 
gation ! Winona had become to the colony 
an object of love and veneration, and con- 
tinued to be the idol of her people ; and 
when Hendrick visited the settlement again, 
he found the praises of Winona on every 
tongue. His visits now became more fre- 
quent, and he found himself fascinated by 
Winona; and yet it does not appear that 
he took much thought beyond the present 
pleasure of her society; into the future he 
did not stop to gaze. He had now become 
more occu2)ied in his duties at the mines ; 
the hours of relaxation, however, afforded 
him, were entirely devoted to her, not dream- 
ing that he was awakening a passion of dan- 
gerous intensity in the susceptible heart of 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER's LEAP. 143 

Winona. She at first seemed to look upon 
Hendrick in the character of a brother and 
instructor in things that delighted her and 
filled her mind with wonder ; and such he 
had been to her. He had taught her many 
customs and things that were entirely new, 
and she was a most apt pupil. 

Riding on horseback, though practised by 
the male members of her people, could not 
be indulged in to any extent by Winona, as 
the condition of the roads (being mere trails 
or footpaths) forbade iti But Hendrick now 
used his new road, originally constructed for 
the transportation of ores from the mines, to 
a more satisfactory purpose, and much to the 
delight of this flower of the forest. In the 
absence of Hendrick, it was the custom of 
Winona to spend much of her time alone, 
and with her little red canoe^ and bow and 
arrow, she passed many hours in that por- 
tion of the river which flows between the 
islands and the mainland on which Wyo- 
missing was situated. The borders of this 
stream were skirted on both sides, then as 
now, by a growth of large and beautiful 
trees, some of which are still standing, no 
doubt, upon which Winona once gazed with 



144 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

delighted admiration, and from whose up- 
permost branches the wild-fowl and other 
game, then so abundant, were brought down 
with absolute certainty, when she was in- 
clined to exercise her skill with the bow 
and arrow. On one of these occasions, 
when Winona's canoe was gliding leisurely 
over these quiet waters, she heard on the 
island, and quite near her, the report of a 
rifle. At first, the report of a gun was a 
terror to Winona ; but Hendrick's visits to 
the settlement being now always announced 
in that way, it had become, instead, a feel- 
ing of delight, and her first thoughts now 
were of the near presence of Hendrick. 
She moored her boat to the shore, and 
quietly waited and watched. Hendrick con- 
tinued to fire, and she soon discovered a 
black squirrel upon one of the loftiest 
branches of a large tree near her. Taking 
up her bow, and selecting from her quiver 
a choice arrow, with deliberate, well-di- 
rected aim, she brought down the animal 
bleeding at Hendrick's feet. He picked up 
the squirrel, thinking it had fallen from the 
effect of the discharge of his own gun a mo- 
ment before, but was greatly astonished to 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 145 

find it pierced with an arrow still sticking 
in its body. Recollecting to have seen Wi- 
nona's skill with the bow and arrow before, 
he at once divined her near presence, and 
soon sought out his fair rival, with her little 
bark moored under the edge of the beach, 
near where he stood. This unexpected 
meeting gave mutual delight. Hendrick 
complimented Winona on her prowess, and 
though she could not indulge him with 
equal compliment, she gave expression only 
to the pleasure the circumstance of their 
meeting afforded her; and before parting, 
on this occasion, Hendrick should have dis- 
covered the spark he was kindling, and the 
danger of fanning to a flame that which, in 
a breast like Winona's, would continue to 
burn forever. 

It would be most interesting to know the 
manner and character of thought indulged 
in by a child of nature with the active pow- 
ers of mind possessed by Winona, before 
coming in contact with any other light than 
that furnished by the vague traditions of 
her own people. Winona spent many hours 
with no other companion than her little 
boat ; these were her hours of solitude. 

13 



146 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

That great mind could not be idle. Of 
what did she muse? She could not wander 
in thought far back into the past, and if so, 
the traditions of her people were not suffi- 
cient to supply much food for thought, and 
the successive days of the passing present 
were a uniform round of uninteresting same- 
ness. She could, perhaps, run over in her 
mind the uncertain stories of a long line of 
noble chieftains, and could recite deeds of 
daring heroism performed; but Winona need- 
ed something more than all this. Her mind 
yearned for more refined food for thought. 
Yearned for the light, that light her pene- 
trating vision had caught in faint glimmer- 
ings through the misty clouds that had in- 
veiled her people for centuries. Could she 
behold the sun as it rose from behind the 
great mountain, and picture to herself that 
it had for some hours before it appeared to 
her, lighted up cities filled with gay and 
lively people, — such as she since came in 
contact with, and which had given her so 
much pleasure, — without any other light 
than that furnished by her own unassisted 
imagination? She may have heard her no- 
ble father speak of the " great flood of wa- 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 147 

ters," lying towards both the rising and set- 
ting sun, and may have accompanied him 
on one of his visits of state to where the 
bhie waters of the great ocean were revealed 
to her astonished vision. If so, could it have 
been to her mind only an unending flood, 
extending beyond the utmost stretch of her 
imaghiation into vast illimitable infinity? 
or could she, by the powers of her mind, 
give to its bounds comprehension, and to its 
measure limits? 

Might she not in these hours of solitude 
have been led to inquire into the first great 
cause, and by communion in spirit with her 
Heavenly Father have had revealed to her 
by impressions we, who have clearer light, 
do not conceive of, the blessed story of Re- 
demption? It would be terrible to think, 
that that communion could not be enjoyed 
by the multitudes who, like Winona, must 
have felt an "aching void" without it, and 
who may have lived lives of comparative 
freedom from actual transgression. 

It is natural to suppose that after Wi- 
nona's introduction into the society of the 
colonists her mind took a different turn, 
and that she now had new elements of 



148 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

thought furnished her; and during her in- 
terviews with Hendrick at this period, which 
had become quite frequent, the whole effort 
of her mind was employed in making him 
the active medium of intelligent thought. 
She labored for new ideas, new facts, and 
new emotions. She was inquisitive w^ithout 
the power of asking directly for that which 
gave her so much delight to hear ; and her 
efforts, therefore, were incessant to make 
Hendrick talk, and he could converse on no 
subject without affording her both instruc- 
tion and pleasure. To Hendrick this was 
the most agreeable and interesting of em- 
ployments, and such promptings as he re- 
ceived were calculated to bring into active 
employment the full measure of his capa- 
city. Winona was a charming listener, and 
he an equally good talker, — the former qual- 
ity almost as rare in the general world as 
the latter. Hendrick was intelligent and 
observing, and had seen much of that world 
he was revealing to her, which Winona 
termed " the world of light," and all his re- 
citals were to her astonishing. 

After the conclusion of one of his lively 
descriptions, Winona appeared sad, and he 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER S LEAP. 149 

was at no loss to divine the cause. She 
grieved that she could give but such poor 
return for the great boon to her of Hen- 
drick's conversation ; and felt so much her 
inferiority in this respect as to cause her on 
this, and other occasions, to shrink away in 
sadness and dejection. But Hendrick saw 
in her a precious bud awaiting the light and 
heat of the sun of intelligence to develop 
the beautiful, fragrant, full-blown rose of 
lovely w^omanhood. She would try, how- 
ever, to interest him in subjects relating to 
her own people. She spoke of the wealth 
of her nation in unbounded forests, plains, 
and rivers ; the numerous tribes whose chiefs 
looked up to her people and called them 
" Fathers ;" the heroism and endurance of 
the warriors of her nation ; scenes of the 
chase in which she was permitted to partici- 
pate; some remarkable skill displayed in 
the use of the bow and arrow. But she felt, 
at the same time, the meagreness of the in- 
tellectual repast she was furnishing to him 
whom it would be her highest ambition and 
enjoyment to please. On one subject, how- 
ever, she did not hesitate to speak with some 
degree of confidence, and with the assurance 

13* 



150 DELAWAEE WATER GAP. 

that its contemplation would be a source of 
delight to Hendrick, as it always was to her- 
self: the great natural heauty of the country 
she inhahlted. 

She sj)oke in raptures of the grand old 
river that lay before them; of the lovely 
Valley of the Minisink, of many days' travel 
in extent, which the waters of this river 
adorned. She described the numerous water- 
falls on its tributaries, and gave the eupho- 
nious and expressive titles by which they 
were known. And, above all, the majesty 
of the surrounding hills, and that grand 
stretch of mountain bordering the river that 
shut out the light of early day, and which 
had no endins:/*'' 

She spoke of the old tradition of this beau- 
tiful valley having once been a deep sea 
of water, and the bursting asunder of the 
mountains at the will of the Great Spirit, to 
uncover for the home of her people the vale 
of the Minisink ; the mighty chasm in the 
mountain, and the twin giants overlooking 
the vast extent of country to the rising sun, 
as far as the eye can reach. Hendrick had 

* Kitochtanemin, Kittatinny, endless mountain. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER's LEAP. 151 

only seen the Belaivare Water Qap^ from the 
town where Winona resided. She now pro- 
posed to him a visit from Wyomissing in her 
canoe to the foot of the cliff, and to ascend 
by the Indian trail to the summit, and Hen- 
drick's next visit was agreed upon for this 
excursion. 

In the meantime, the English government 
had obtained possession of New York, and 
after the surrender of Stuyvesant, the Dutch 
Governor, orders were sent out to Van Allen 
to abandon the mining operations in the 
Minisink, and to report to his government 
without delay .f The news fell like a leaden 
weight upon Hendrick's heart ; all his fair 
prospects were blasted in a moment, and his 
first thoughts were, how to break the sad 
intelligence to Winona. 



■5^ The " Gap " was called by the Indians Pohoqualin, which 
word signifies the terminatiun of two mountains with a stream 
passing between them. 

The river was called Lenapewihittuck, the river of the 
Lenape. Mack-er-isk-iskan, seems to have been a place in 
the river, and not the name of the river itself. 

f In the expedition fitted out by the English government, 
in 1664, which captured New Netherlands (New York) from 
the Dutch, the writer's great-great-great-grandfather was a 
captain. 



152 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

He met her at the appointed time. She 
appeared lovelier than ever before, and mani- 
fested more than her accustomed vivacity. 
She was dressed mostly after the custom of 
her white lady friends, through whom she 
had ordered from abroad, a habit of rich 
crimson cloth, trimmed with gold lace, made 
somewhat after the style, which in modern 
days has vainly struggled for supremacy, 
known as the '^ Bloomer." She wore her 
long hair in plaits reaching near her feet. 
Her head was usually adorned with a wreath 
made from the gay plumage of birds; but 
w^as now crowned with wild flowers. Her 
jewels were the finer quality of the minerals 
common to the country. She wore a neck- 
hice of beads composed of crystallized quartz, 
party-colored jasper, and some of the varie- 
ties of agate.* And estimating their value 
by the amount of labor bestowed upon their 
finish, they would rival the more costly of 
those worn by modern belles. 

Winona made the best use of her knowl- 



* Some stone beads, of the above-described material, have 
been obtained from Indian graves along the river, of such 
finished workmanship, as almost to baffle modern skill, as- 
sisted by modern appliances. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 153 

edge of the locality, and conducting the 
canoe herself, she let it glide so quietly over 
the waters as to afford the best opportunity 
for witnessing the different objects of inter- 
est, none of which escaped Winona's obser- 
vation. And she gave such vivid descrip- 
tions of the lovely scenes before them as to 
startle Hendrick from the sad reverie in 
which he was indulging. At the junction 
of the Analoming with the Delaware, which 
she termed " the marriage of the waters," 
she rested her boat to point out one of the 
favorite haunts of her youth, in the grove 
bordering these two streams, and where her 
father first permitted her to prove her skill 
with the bow and arrow, on as large and 
highly prized game as the forest elk ; and 
though he stood with his own bow ready 
drawn, he did not have occasion to speed 
the arrow, as hers proved quite effectual. 

The contrast between this and former 
meetings of Winona and Hendrick was 
marked. Winona now afforded the intel- 
lectual entertainment. They each had ac- 
quired a good knowledge of the other's lan- 
guage ; but, at the request of Hendrick, on 
this occasion Winona spoke in her native 



154 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

tongue, and he thought her truly eloquent. 
In their ascent up the mountain, Winona 
proved herself familiar with every crag and 
cliff; every murmuring rill or gurgling brook, 
to most of which she had herself been the 
intelligent nomenclatress ; and she discov- 
ered and pointed out beautj" everywhere, 
from the mossy carpet under their feet to 
the extended panorama from the towering 
summit; and but for the sorrowful revela- 
tion Hendrick was soon to make, this would 
have been the charmed day of their lives. 
They had now descended from Mount Minsi, 
and were seated on a mossy bed overlooking 
the river as it slowly wound its way through 
the narrowing gorge. Hendrick had tried 
to conceal the burden that was pressing so 
heavily upon him ; but Winona had discov- 
ered his unwonted quiet, and after having 
several times rallied him from his abstracted 
moods, she now, in sympathy with him, was 
silent and contemplative. 

This silence reigned for several minutes ; 
the fated moment had now arrived. Hen- 
drick could not endure the thought of leav- 
ing without communicating the cause of his 
separation; and though he loved Winona 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 155 

sufficiently well to make her his bride, his 
relation to his government was such as to 
forbid the possibility of his taking her with 
him as his wife, even if she should consent 
to such an arrangement (her relation to, and 
fondness for her own people rendering it 
quite improbable), and Hendrick did not dare 
to hold out the promise of ever being able 
to return to claim her in her own country, 
though he entertained a secret hope that 
such happiness might be in store. It does 
not appear, however, that Hendrick dreamed 
of the extent of Winona's passion for him, 
and how it had deepened since their last 
meeting. 

At length, he drew forth the fatal letter 
containing the peremptory orders from his 
government, and made known to Winona 
its startling contents. 

She gave vent to no unusual emotions ; 
did not shriek ; did not shed a tear ; did not 
even murmur at the terrible blow that fell 
upon her with a force sufficient to crush a 
weaker mind to earth. She paused but for 
a moment, then standing firm and erect as 
the forest oak, displaying the heroism of her 
noble ancestry, but, alas, resolved upon a 



156 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

purpose so common with her people, and 
which Hendrick did not in time discover. 

"With unfaltering voice she addressed him 
in the followinjx words : 



" Winona's sun has set forever! 
She awakes from a beautiful dream ; 
But such a dream, 

The gUiddening beams of morning light 
Do not dispel. 

O thou loveliest of Winona's images ! 
Thou fairest of her creations, 
And thou skilfullest of limners ! 
Canst thou behold the picture 
Thy noble self hath painted, 
On the virgin heart of Winona? 
It shall not be blotted out ; 
W^inona will wear it 
In the spirit land, 
And cherish it there. 
Winona doubteth not 
The love that Hendrick bears her ; 
But the fashion of his love 
Is not like Winona's. 
Hendrick's love may melt away 
Like the snow? of winter 
In a new sunlight. 
The current of the deep river 
Flows on forever ; 

So does the love of Lenape's daughter. 
But Winona will not stay 
To stem the current alone. 
The Great Spirit who rules the heavens 
Is the father of Winona's people : 
He calls Winona home. 



WINONA, OR THE STORY OF LOVER'S LEAP. 157 

Hendrick's duty bids him away 

Beyond the great waters. 

Let him go hence, 

iieloved of Winona! 

Winona would not chide 

The dear author of these fleeting joys ; 

The unwilling cause 

Of this deadliest sorrow. 

W^inona would die, 

And live to die again, 

Once more to feel the gentle currcmt, 

The rising, swelling, joyous torrent, 

Flowing from this fount of love. 

Farewell, brother ! 

Tutor, lover ! 

Winona's sun has set forever." 

In a moment she disappeared from view. 
Hendrick ran to the cliiF, caught her in his 
arms; they reeled on the precipice, and — 



14 



158 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



A Legend of tJie Delaivare Water Gap. 

BY MRS. E. S. SWIFT. 

" And then their love was secret. 0, it is 
Most exquisite to have a fount of bliss 
Sacred to us alone !" 

Miss Landon. 

I WAS spending a week with a party of 
friends, at the Delaware Water Gap. We 
had just returned from a delightful ramble 
through the woods to Flat Rock, and were 
seated on the piazza of the hotel, watching 
the lights and shadows of the passing clouds 
on the Jersey Mountain, which rose to the 
height of sixteen hundred feet, immediately 
opposite to us. The day, though late in 
August, was as capricious as one in April. 
Sunshine and showers had alternated with 
the hours ; the sun, a few moments previous, 
had been bathing the wooded summit of the 
mountain in a flood of golden radiance, 
piercing the thickets of underwood, and re- 
vealing to the curious eye many a leafy 
nook of vernal beauty ; now it was rain- 
ing heavily, and the dull plashing sound of 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 159 

the rain-drops, as they fell upon the river 
immediately beneath us, imparted to us all 
a sensation of melancholy. We were sud- 
denly aroused by Emilie exclaiming : " Look 
down the Gap ; see, the sun is already shin- 
ing there ; surely this place is bewitched ; 
do look at the rainbow on the water !"* 

We all arose, and gazed in the direction 
to which she pointed our attention, and one 
of the most vivid-colored rainbows I ever 
beheld, lay pictured across the river from 
shore to shore. In vain we strained our 
eyes in all directions towards the sky ; the 
dull, leaden-hued clouds above us gave no 
history of the beautiful vision. For a few 
minutes the bow of promise rested on the 
stormy waters, then its rich painting of 
many colors faded from our sight. 

In about half an hour the sun was again 
shining merrily, and every leaf and sprig 
seemed hung with precious gems. The air 
was laden with the perfume from the woods, 
and as the cool breezes swept across the 
piazza, we knew they had passed over lone 
coverts of romantic beauty, where fairies 

* The landlord of the Gap Hotel told us that, once before, 
he had witnessed a similar siirht. 



160 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

might hide, and where the ferns, the mosses, 
and the wild-flowers grew. We had worn 
out dresses and shoes in our daily visits to 
the Pennsylvania and Jersey Mountains; 
we had been pioneered by our good-natured 
landlord and his pretty little twins to all 
the known lions of the Gap ; but we were 
hourly making voyages of discovery for our- 
selves ; an(J when we assembled around the 
well-provided table of our host, each had his 
or her adventure to relate. One had found 
out an echo in the deep forest that answered 
to every word ; another had been botanizing, 
and the mantel-stand was filled with tum- 
blers of gorgeous-colored flowers; another, 
a disciple of old Isaac Walton, had been 
angling, and a dish of fine sunfish attested 
his success. In the evenings, the piazza was 
our favorite promenade. We had some de- 
lightful musicians with us, and in music and 
conversation the hours glided away with 
such rapidity, that we always expressed sur- 
prise at the shortness of the evening, when 
our host announced that eleven o'clock had 
struck. Our party consisted of six ladies 
and four gentlemen, all unmarried ; but, very 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 161 

unfortunately, we were too closely related 
for Cupid to show his face amongst us. 

'^ What !" I hear my reader exclaim, " no 
love ! I would not give a fig for such a 
story." Nor I either, dear reader ; particu- 
larly as the scene is laid in the Delaware 
Gap — the very headquarters of the wily 
god, where nature, in her most glorious 
dress, keeps j ubilee ; 

"And where, beneath, around, above. 
Earth, water, air, seem full of love." 

Ah ! the deep recesses of those forest 
shades, the close intricacies of those verdant 
aisles, how often have their silence and soli- 
tudes been the chosen sanctuaries for love's 
impassioned confessions ; and hearts have 
been united in those solemn old woods, 
never again to be riven asunder ; and there, 
perchance, 

" Young hearts were plighted wl;en the storms 
Were dark upon life's sky, 
In full, deep knowledge of their task, 
To suffer and to die," 

'' The rain was over and gone," and the 
afternoon was so serene and beautiful, we 
all sailed down to the shore, and soon filled 

14* 



162 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

the only boat belonging to the establish- 
ment. Josephine, a very lovely girl from 
Baltimore, sat, like the queen of beauty, on 
the prow of the boat, singing snatches of 
old songs, in the gayety of her heart. She 
was one of the brightest-looking beings I 
ever beheld ; tall and graceful, with a face 
of uncommon loveliness ; her complexion 
was soft and transparent, and the slightest 
emotion tinted her delicate cheek with the 
glow of damask rose ; her eyes of dark blue 
were shaded by long black lashes, which 
imparted a peculiar tenderness to their ex- 
pression ; her hair, also black, clustered in 
short thick curls around her small and finely 
shaped head. Occasionally, she would pause 
in her songs, and a shade of sorrow, it might 
be of memory, would flit across her face. 
An enthusiast in her love of nature, she 
sat gazing upon the beautiful scenery, now 
warbling like a bird, and anon calling our 
attention to some bold projecting cliff, that 
looked from its elevation ready to fall and 
crush us. 

As our boat glided into the deep waters 
of the Gap, we all kept silence. Shut out 
from the w^orld by the towering mountains 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 163 

on each side of us, with naught but the sky 
above, and the dark river rolling beneath 
us, an awe as of some mighty presence fell 
upon our spirits ; and as we emerged from 
the solemn gloom of that magnificent scene, 
the tones of our voices were more softened, 
conversation took a more serious cast, and 
we felt like those who had recently been 
engaged in some holy religious service. 

But, full of life and youth, as a few rapid 
strokes of the oar brought our boat into the 
glad sunshine, we again awakened the echoes 
with songs and laughter. Cousin Tom, as 
we called a fine-looking young man of five- 
and-twenty, had arrayed himself in all the 
various-colored shawls of the party, and 
from his picturesque appearance, might have 
been mistaken for Osceola, or some other 
renowned Indian warrior 5 he now proposed 
to land us on the Jersey shore, just at the 
point where the river makes an abrupt turn, 
one of the most romantic spots imaginable. 
Here, while we were seated on the trunk of 
an enormous tree, that had been struck by 
lightning some years previous, and still laid 
as it had fallen, close to the shore, Emilie 
impatiently exclaimed — 



164 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

" What a pity it is that there is no legend 
connected with this sublime place ; how de- 
lightful it would be now to listen to some 
interesting story of the past." 

'^ Why, ladies !" replied her brother, 
" among so many fair creatures, surely you 
have some modern reminiscences that would 
make very pretty wayside tales; some diary 
of a heart, for instance ; some stray leaves 
from Love's Album." 

" Yes," said Cousin Tom, '' I am sure 
these girls have lots of love secrets ; here is 
Josa, now, looking so demure and modest, 
she has never arrived at the age of twenty 
without making some acquaintance with 
Cupid, I know ; come, blossom, let us have 
the last passion." 

We all turned our eyes on Josephine ; but 
the agitation and annoyance depicted on her 
sweet face was distressing ; her brow and 
cheek for a moment mantled with the tell- 
tale crimson, and, the next instant, the pal- 
lor of death settled on every feature. Cousin 
Tom, in his careless badinage, had evidently 
touched a wound, not yet closed. An em- 
barrassing silence followed ; but we were re- 
lieved by Emilie exclaiming — 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 165 

" See, we shall have company, at last, at 
the Gap House; there are two gentlemen 
on horseback on the opposite side." 

For a short period they were seen slowly 
ascending the rough and hilly road ; but the 
thick hedge of laurels by which it was bor- 
dered, soon concealed them from our view. 
Our next movement was to try and arrive 
at the Hotel before them, and make our- 
selves presentable at supper, for the sun 
had already disappeared, and the twilight, 
which in this mountainous pass is so rapidly 
succeeded by night, was fast approaching. 
Hitherto, we had been the only visitors at 
the Gap, and had the house all to ourselves; 
consequently, being a family party, we were 
not as particular in our costumes as we would 
have been had strangers been present. A 
half an hour of fast rowing soon brought us 
to the landing-place at the foot of the rocks, 
close to the Hotel; and we had just time to 
arranire our dresses and meet together on 
our favorite lounge, the piazza, when the 
sound of hoofs warned us that the travellers 
had arrived; but, strange to say, but one 
solitary horseman appeared. Here, then, 
was a mystery. What had become of the 



166 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

other ? We had all distinctly seen two gen- 
tlemen, and there was no other house on the 
road, except an old dilapidated tavern, far 
down in the gloomiest part of the Gap, a 
place we were sure no traveller in his senses 
would halt at, with our commodious Hotel 
in prospect, for, as it w^as situated upon a 
high hill, it could be seen from a considera- 
ble distance. 

Cousin Tom capered about as if he had 
gone mad, declaring " it was delightful, a 
perfect Radcliffe adventure; he had no doubt 
the next morning the traveller would be 
found concealed in a laurel thicket, stark 
dead, with a bowie-knife sticking in his 
heart." 

Emilie laughed, and averred " that here- 
after she should be a convert to old Cotton 
Mather; henceforth, she would be a faith- 
ful believer in witchcraft. That lonely road 
looked like a haunt for gnomes, witches, and 
all the dread family of evil spirits." 

In the midst of our conjectures and dis- 
cussions the supper-bell rang, and I believe 
each of us felt some curiosity to see the new- 
comer. A slight-made young man, dressed 
in black, with a very intellectual face, stood 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 167 

conversing with our host in the supper-room, 
who introduced him to the company by the 
name of the Keverend Mr. Bennett. I ex- 
changed a hasty glance with Cousin Tom ; 
]iis conceit of a murdered traveller by such 
white clerical hands seemed so ridiculous 
that 1 could with much difficulty refrain 
from laughing, as I returned the gentleman's 
salutation. An hour was spent after supper 
in social conversation, when Mr. Bennett, 
pleading fatigue, retired for the night. 

We immediately called the landlord to 
know if Mr. Bennett had mentioned having 
a companion with him. 

"Yes; a friend of his had intended to 
have accompanied him to the Gap, but his 
horse had unfortuately fallen lame on the 
route, and he was for the present obliged to 
remain a short distance behind*" 

" But, where ? where ?" we all exclaimed. 

" The gentleman did not mention where 
he had left his friend,'* but our host supposed 
about two miles below, opposite Columbia; 
the only stopping-place that he was aware 
of, near the Gap. 

We did not think it expedient to tell him 
that we had seen both gentlemen not a mile 



168 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

from his hotel ; and we thought it hardly 
probable that a traveller would journey two 
miles over one of the worst roads in Penn- 
sylvania, to shelter a lame animal, when his 
stables were direct in his way, and not half 
the distance. 

Long, that night, after we had sought our 
chambers, we conversed about the missing 
traveller. Josephine and myself shared the 
same room, and I was sitting at the window 
gazing down the road, now illuminated by 
the moonlight, when a sob from my com- 
panion made me start. She was standing 
by the dressing-table, reading a closely writ- 
ten note ; so absorbed was she in her occu- 
pation, that she appeared unconscious of my 
presence; twice she perused the note through 
blinding tears ; then, passionately kissing 
the paper, she threw herself on the bed in a 
parox3^sm of grief. Surprised as well as 
alarmed by such a display of sorrow in one 
generally so cheerful, I approached, and 
throwing my arms around her begged her to 
be calm, and tell me the cause of such sud- 
den distress. 

'^ Oh, cousin ! I cannot be calm," she ex- 
claimed ; '• he is here." 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAAVARE WATER GAP. 169 

" Who, dear Josa ?" 

" Henry," answered she, wildly gazing at 
me ; " my Henry, whom I love better than 
life ; he whom my father has forbidden me, 
on pain of his endless displeasure, to see or 
speak to again ; and cousin," added she, with 
trembling lips, "I have solemnly promised 
to obey him ;" and again she buried her sweet 
tearful face in the pillow. For some time 
she wept as if her heart were breaking ; but, 
by degrees becoming more calm^ she confided 
to me her " story of true love." 

Her father, Mr. Gorden, was an eminent 
physician in Baltimore, in a successful prac- 
tice of about ten thousand a year. He was 
one of those fortunate individuals with which 
our country abounds, who, by superior tal- 
ents and industry, had risen from the mid- 
dle ranks of life, to take an acknowledged 
station among the aristocracy of the land. 
Josephine was his idol ; proud and over- 
bearing to all the world beside, in the pres- 
ence of his beautiful child his nature be- 
came softened to almost feminine tenderness. 
Her education and accomplishments had 
been his peculiar care; his indulgence to- 
wards her knew no bounds ; the expensive 

15 . 



170 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

presents he constantly lavished upon her 
silently attested how well he loved her; 
money was dross in his eyes compared to 
her happiness or enjoyment; yet, strange to 
relate, he had refused the hand of his daugh- 
ter to Harry Le Roy, because he was not 
rich. 

A gentleman, whose only recommendation 
was his immense wealth, was the suitor upon 
whom his choice fell. Married to him, Jo- 
sephine's establishment would be of almost 
regal splendor, his ambitious dreams for her 
aggrandizement would be fully realized; and 
he still trusted that her filial affection and 
reverence lor his wishes and opinions would 
prevail over the love she confessed for Le 
Roy ; and in his proud imaginings he already 
beheld his darling girl the wife of the mil- 
lionnaire. 

Harry Le Roy had been dismissed with 
coldness and hauteur^ that to one of his ar- 
dent temperament and Southern blood had 
been interpreted into a direct and deliberate 
insult. The bitterness of his outraged feel- 
ings had been increased by several letters 
that he had written to Josephine being re- 
turned unopened, and his being informed 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 171 

that she had left Baltimore to visit some 
relations in a distant State. No definite in- 
formation could be obtained, and, wretched 
and hopeless, he had resorted to travel to 
deaden the misery of his mind. 

By the merest chance, in Philadelphia, he 
obtained intelligence that she had accom- 
panied a party of her relations in an excur- 
sion to the Delaware Water Gap. His reso- 
lution was instantly formed; he would follow 
her, see her, and learn his doom from her 
own lips. 

The mystery was now solved. Harry Le 
Roy was the missing traveller. His tender- 
ness for the feelings of Josephine would 
not permit him to appear before her unan- 
nounced ; and he had remained in the soli- 
tary old house in the Gap, whilst his friend, 
Mr. Bennett, had preceded him to our hotel. 

" Here, dearest Josephine," the note went 
on to say, '* I await your decision ; to me, it 
will be happiness or misery, life or death. 
The yearning love that fills my heart for 
you must be satisfied with a sight of that 
dear face. I feel that I cannot any longer 
exist without your presence. My Josephine ; 
my beautiful, my own ; yes, my own ! for 



172 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

hearts that have been cemented like ours 
cannot be disunited by any earthly fiat. 
When and where we shall meet, I leave to 
you, my best beloved ; but in a few hours I 
hope to hold you to a heart which, since we 
parted, has been filled with but one long 
thought of thee — only thee." 

I confess, after reading this note, I never 
felt more perplexed in my life. I was some 
years older than Josephine, and I knew she 
would depend upon me for advice and as- 
sistance; but I also knew that her father 
would never forgive any interference with 
his commands; for the lovers to meet would 
be madness — but how was I to prevent it ? 
After a few moments of troubled cogitation, 
I determined to remain neutral, and let 
things take their course. I knew that wicked 
urchin, Cupid, was not to be told, '-' Thus 
far shalt thou go, and no further;" and I 
foresaw that he intended to play some of his 
most mischievous pranks in this sequestered 
spot, that looked as if it had been expressly 
created to be the earthly Eden of his vota- 
ries. Josephine sat watching my countenance 
with breathless eagerness; she looked like a 
sculptured image, so pale and still. Gently 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 173 

lifting the dark ringlets that shaded her 
cheek, I softly kissed it ; the electric chord 
of sympathy vibrated in each bosom, and 
without my uttering a word, she felt that I 
would aid and assist her ; and, throwing 
herself on my bosom, she wept like a child. 
After much persuasion, I induced her to 
retire to rest ; but her slumbers were broken 
and uneasy ; she repeatedly murmured the 
name of her lover ; and I saw, by the night- 
lamp, large tear-drops glistening on her 
fringed eyelids. Once, in supplicating ac- 
cents, she exclaimed, " Father ! dear father !" 
The next morning, Mr. Bennett proposed an 
excursion to Stroudsburg, a village a few 
miles distant from the Gap. Josephine, on 
the plea of a nervous headache, had not 
appeared at the breakfast-table ; and when 
the rest of the party gladly acceded to his 
proposal, I excused myself as nurse to the 
invalid. Mr. Bennett gave me a quick 
glance of intelligence, and handing me a 
bouquet of wild roses, begged " I would pre- 
sent them, with his compliments, to Miss 
Gorden." 

The carriages were soon at the door ; and 
with many regrets that I could not go with 

15* 



174 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

them, to my great relief they departed. I 
immediately ascended to Josephine's cham- 
ber, and found her sitting by the window, 
quite calm and composed. In my absence, 
fehe had taken a sudden resolve to see Le 
Koy. " She would," she said, " tell him of 
the solemn promise her father had exacted 
from her; she would convince him it were 
better that they should not meet again ; for 
the last time she would hear his voice and 
see his face. O !" continued she, with quiv- 
ering accents, '" situated as I now am, even 
my dear father would not object to this in- 
terview." 

I had given her the bouquet of roses, and 
whilst speaking she had loosened the cord 
that bound them together, intending to ar- 
range them in a china vase that stood on 
the table, wdien a small twisted note, that 
had been concealed in the centre of the 
bunch, fell to the floor; with a glowing 
cheek she raised it, saying, " 0, this is so 
like Harry ! How many bouquets of white 
camelias he used to send me! but in my 
eagerness to secure the dear little hillet doux 
that I knew nestled inside, the poor flowers 
often perished." 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 175 

She eagerly perused the well-known char- 
acters, and whilst she did so, her beautiful 
face became radiant with happiness. I never 
saw joy so vividly depicted on any other 
countenance. 

" 0, cousin !" she exclaimed, '^ he will be 
here in ten minutes, and I have not seen 
him for, ah, me ! so many long months." 

Tears of rapture glittered in her soft eyes, 
and she yielded herself to the delicious in- 
toxication the certainty of seeing him again 
inspired, apparently thoughtless of all con- 
sequences. I will not portray their meeting, 
for Josephine insisted upon my being pres- 
ent. Theirs was no common attachment; 
every impulse of their souls was given to 
each other ; few words were spoken, but as 
he held her to his heart, every feature pro- 
claimed the victory of love. The hours to 
them seemed but minutes; and when at 
last, fearful of being surprised by our return- 
ing party, I gently hinted to him it was time 
to depart, he saucily told me " he did not 
intend to go at all." But at length, after 
Josephine promising him, if I would accom- 
pany her, to meet him in the afternoon, in 
the old road, a sequestered spot near a water- 



176 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

fall immediately beneath the Hotel, but by 
a steep bank of rocks completely concealed 
from observation, he consented to leave her. 

She watched him, as he slowly paced 
along the road, until he was hidden from 
her sight ; and then, for the first time, the 
thought was awakened in her mind, that 
she had broken the pledge she had given 
her father, and, contrary to his known com- 
mand, was again about to hold a clandestine 
interview with her lover. The struggle in 
her mind was intense ; her wounded con- 
science rebelled against her disobedience ; 
she was distracted with contending emo- 
tions, for she was most tenderly attached to 
her father, who to her had ever been, except 
in this only instance, the most kind and in- 
dulgent of parents. But then, again, she 
had centred every hope of her life upon 
Le Roy. What should she do ? Repel him 
— see him no more, forever ? The thought 
had too much agony in it to be endured. 
No; she would meet him once more, and 
then they would part, and be to each other 
like the dead — only a memory ! 

Ah, delusive sophistry of a fond heart! 
The path of duty is a straight one ; and he 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 177 

or she who deviates from its narrow track 
becomes bewildered in a labyrinth from 
which there is no return. 

The old road, as it is called, now entirely 
disused, was shady and retired ; it was close 
to the river's brink, and covered with a rich 
greensward, thickly gemmed with the blue 
forget-me-not ; the same flowers so carefully 
cultivated in our gardens, which, in this 
mountain region, grow wild and abundant. 
A waterfall of considerable height fell over 
a precipice above, imparting a refreshing 
coolness to the air; huge rocks, of strange 
and irregular shapes, carpeted with thick 
moss, lay piled along the shore, forming lux- 
urious resting-places for the loiterer. To 
this spot I accompanied Josephine to bid 
a last farewell to her lover. We had been 
now a week at the Gap, and our arrange- 
ments were already made to leave it the 
next day. As a turn in the road brought 
us in view of the cascade, we saw Le Koy 
standing with folded arms, leaning against 
the trunk of a huge sycamore tree, whose 
dense foliage threw a deep shadow across 
the path, broken by the golden sunshine 
piercing through its twisted branches into 



178 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

bright chequers on the verdant turf. Here, 
then, 

" Amidst the fall of waves, the fountain's gush, 
The sigh of winds, the music heard 
At eventide, from air and bush, 
The minstrelsy of leaf and bird," 

these two fond hearts, full of warm human 
love, met again, trusting in their own strength 
to part forever ! I had seated myself on a 
shelving projection of rock that commanded 
a view of the river for some distance ; my 
own heart was full of sad memories, phan- 
toms of the things that were, and are not ; 
and as I gazed upon the lovers, both so 
young and devoted, imaginations of Dryads 
and forest spirits, that in the olden time 
were thought to haunt the greenwood shade, 
stole over my senses, and I almost wished 
that from among the ancient trees around 
me some oracle would speak and divine their 
future ! 

Le Roy was a model of manly grace and 
beauty ; he w^as reclining at Josephine's feet, 
drinking deep draughts of love from eyes 
whose tender glances told him, without the 
aid of words, how dear he was ; they had 
been for some time conversing in low, earn- 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 179 

est tones, he evidently pleading his passion, 
when Josephine called me to come to her, 
and, with much perturbation, informed me 
that she had consented to a secret marriage 
to take place that evening. It was in vain 
I remonstrated, and painted in vivid colors 
the folly of such a proceeding. I spoke of 
the anger of her father; the deceit she 
would be practising upon his fond and trust- 
ing affection ; the remorse she must expe- 
rience from such wilful disobedience to his 
wishes. I appealed to Le Roy's honor and 
generosity ; but with Josephine's hand close- 
ly clasped in his own, he swore he never 
would resign her but with life. The very 
name of Mr. Gorden appeared to awaken 
all the angry passions of his nature ; he said 
he had wronged and insulted him ; that in 
his wanton pride he had sought to crush the 
affections of both their hearts, and offer up 
his daughter a sacrifice at the shrine of mam- 
mon. Josephine pleaded for her father, and 
bitterly wept, but it was upon her lover's 
bosom. She seemed to be surrounded by a 
magnetic spell that she was unable to break ; 
all her resolves had melted away before the 
impassioned eloquence of Le Eoy. Before 



180 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

we had left the spot, moved by her tears 
and entreaties, I had pledged myself to si- 
lence and secrecy, and promised to be a wit- 
ness of their nuptials. It was arranged to 
take place at midnight, in the old house at 
the Gap. Mr. Bennett, who had been in 
orders for some years, was to perform the 
ceremony. 

Le Roy was not to claim her as his wife 
for one year; and, in the meantime, Joseph- 
ine trusted to soften her father's prejudices, 
and, in some favorable moment, to reveal to 
him her disobedience, and to be forgiven. 

The clock in the dining-room had told the 
hour of twelve. The full moon shone with 
unclouded lustre, as with noiseless steps we 
left the portico of the hotel. I gave a search- 
ing glance at the windows of the chambers, 
but the white curtains were closely drawn, 
and the deep stillness that reigned through 
the mansion convinced me that w^e had 
nothing to fear from the prying eyes of cu- 
riosity. I thought Mr. Bennett seemed more 
agitated than Josephine ; not a word was 
spoken by either of us. A few yards from 
the house, emerging from the shadow of a 
tree near the spring, we met Le Roy. In 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 181 

silence he folded Josephine to his breast, 
and pressed a kiss upon her cheek, that I 
saw by the moonlight was as pale as mar- 
ble! 

Arrived at the house, we were met by the 
old man and his wife, the only occupants of 
that solitary dwelling ; they had, of neces- 
sity, been taken into our confidence. On a 
table in the small parlor, over which a dip 
candle shed a ghostly light, I observed an 
Episcopal prayer-book, opened at the ordi- 
nance of marriage. All Josephine's firmness 
seemed to forsake her at the sight of these 
preparations, and she sank half-fainting on 
a chair. 

There was a dread, an awe upon my own 
spirit, as if some misfortune was lowering 
over us ; I tried to shake off the ominous 
feeling, and inspire the trembling girl with 
the courage I needed myself, but in vain; 
and as the solemn words were pronounced, 
so pregnant with the happiness or misery of 
her future life, I thought I heard the slow 
tolling of a bell, as if for a soul just depart- 
ed ! The measured tones fell upon my ear 
with such distinctness that it was difficult 

16 



182 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

for me to convince m3\self that it was a de- 
lusion of my excited senses. 

Le Roy insisted upon accompanjn'ng us to 
the door of the hotel, where he took a pas- 
sionate farewell of his bride; and without 
accident or interruption we regained our 
chambers. As I pressed my throbbing head 
on the pillow, I could scarce believe that the 
events of the last few hours were not the 
illusions of a distempered dream. Joseph- 
ine, exhausted by such unwonted excite- 
ment, was soon wrapt in profound slumber. 
She never appeared more touchingly lovely 
in my eyes : her cheek, reposing upon an 
arm that looked as if it were chiselled from 
marble, was flushed to the hue of a ripe 
pomegranate ; her rich dark hair in grace- 
ful ringlets lay in disordered confusion on 
her brow and bosom ; a smile yet lingered 
upon her lips, and a childlike purity and 
beauty w^as beaming from every lineament 
of her sweet face. And, alas ! she, now 
slumbering so tranquilly there, had taken 
the destiny of her life in her own hands. 
A sickness of the heart oppressed me as I 
asked myself the momentous question — 
would it be for good or for evil ? 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE AVATER GAP. 183 

The next morning, while the mists were 
climbing up the sides of the mountains in 
many fantastic shapes, we left the Water 
Gap. 

On arriving in Philadelphia, we found 
Mr. Gorden awaiting his daughter. The 
father met his child with delighted affec- 
tion ; she sprang towards him and hid her 
face on his shoulder, and I feared the excess 
of her emotion would arouse his suspicions. 
Her open and guileless nature shrank ap- 
palled from the task she had imposed upon 
it. Hitherto, there had been entire confi- 
dence between tliem ; now, in the hidden 
recesses of her heart there lay a dread se- 
cret in which that dear father must not par- 
ticipate. I foresaw that, with her quick sen- 
sibilities, ere long all would be revealed. 

They returned to Baltimore, and, six 
months afterwards, I received a letter from 
Josephine, beseeching me to come to her ; 
she said ^Hhat her life was a burden too 
heavy to be borne ; the deceit she was hour- 
ly practising upon a parent, whose every 
thought was for her happines, was preying 
upon her health. Her alarmed and anxious 
father was constantly heaping upon her 



184 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

manifestations of his affection, and devising 
some new scheme of pleasure to divert her 
mind; but this only increased the remorse 
of her spirit. Le Roy, too, forgetful of his 
promises made at the Gap, was anxious to 
claim her as his wife ; he pleaded the suffer- 
ings he endured in hearing vague reports of 
her indisposition, and being unable to ap- 
proach her; he said it was impossible for 
liim, situated as they now were, to pursue 
his profession with any success ; that with 
the absorbing love that filled his very being 
for her, he could no longer consent to this 
separation, and live. 

There remained, then, no alternative but 
to hasten to Baltimore, and declare the po- 
sition of Josephine to Mr. Gorden. I found 
the sweet girl looking harassed and care- 
worn. For several days, our minds were 
much engaged in what manner we should 
reveal her marriage to her fixther. At length 
it was arranged that I should be the person 
to communicate the intelligence ; it was an 
agitating task, and fearful that my courage 
would completely fail me, if it were any 
longer deferred, I sought an interview that 
afternoon with Mr. Gorden. 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 185 

I was ushered into a large and well-filled 
library, fitted up with all the appliances that 
wealth can command, or luxury desire. He 
w^as a fine-looking old gentleman of about 
sixty-seven, bland and courteous in his man- 
ners, with all the refinement and polish of 
the " old school," as it is now termed. He 
received me with much politeness, and order- 
ing the servant to place a chair for me, beg- 
ged me to be seated. My heart beat almost 
audibly. He observed my agitation, and 
tried to dispel it, by producing from a small 
rosewood box a magnificent set of pearls he 
had purchased that morning, as a birth-day 
present for his darling daughter. I felt still 
more oppressed by this communication. I 
dreaded the revulsion of feeling he would 
experience when I had made known my 
mission ; for a moment I hesitated ; but I 
concluded it was more advisable to impart 
my intelligence at once than to defer it to 
some other period. 

In as few words as possible, I told my 
story; but I had not estimated its effects 
upon Mr. Gorden. The treachery of his 
daughter seemed more terrible to him than 
death itself; his countenance became fear- 



186 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

fully convulsed ; he arose from his seat, his 
face livid with passion, and raising his 
clenched hands above his head, he impre- 
cated a fearful curse upon Josephine and 
her husband. A moment more, and, struck 
with paralysis, he lay like a ghastly corpse 
at mv feet. 

For some weeks, Mr. Gorden lingered in 
a critical situation ; all access to his cham- 
ber was strictly forbidden by his physicians. 
Josephine's agony and remorse may be imag- 
ined, but not described ; she had not seen 
her father since the fatal hour in which I 
had revealed her disobedience. He w^as now 
pronounced convalescent. The first words 
he uttered, were to inquire if his daughter 
was yet an inmate of his house ? On being 
answered in the affirmative, he sent her his 
commands to leave it, and forever ! He 
ordered her wardrobe, and all articles be- 
longing to her, to be packed up and sent to 
her address; he commanded a beautiful full- 
length portrait of her, by Inman, to be taken 
from the drawing-room ; and forbade any 
member of his household ever to name or 
allude tq her in his presence : he said, from 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 187 

henceforth he had no daughter — Josephine 
no father ! 

Two days thence, the heart-stricken girl 
and her husband were on the way to the 
South. There, in the bosom of the Le Roy 
family, as the wife of their darling Harry, 
" the winds of heaven were not suffered to 
visit her cheek too roughly," and she expe- 
rienced all the kindness and affection her 
gentleness and beauty w^ere so calculated 
to inspire. Idolized by her husband, who 
seemed each day to become more devoted 
to her; everj^ effort that the fondest love 
could devise, to make her forget the past, 
was resorted to by him ; and, to the super- 
ficial observer, her cup of happiness appear- 
ed full; but there was one drop whose bit- 
terness poisoned the draught. Remem- 
brances of her father, left desolate in his 
old age ; of that happy home, where so much 
indulgence had been lavished upon her, now 
closed against her forever, thronged upon 
her mind. The present was lost in the past ; 
she yearned with painful longings to throw 
herself upon the breast that had nurtured 
her childhood ; she pined for the forgiveness 
she feared would never be accorded to her. 



188 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Letter after letter had been written to her 
incensed parent, and had been returned with 
the seals unbroken. 

Before her husband and his family, Jo- 
sephine never uttered one repining word ; 
but, alone with her God, she prayed for the 
pardon of the sin, whose consequences were 
blighting her young life. 

Her situation quickened her sensibilities 
to the sacredness of the tie between parent 
and child ; and when the thought intruded 
itself that her sacrilegious hand had broken 
that holy bond ; that her guilty disobedience 
was perhaps bringing her father's gray hairs 
in sorrow to the grave, the remorse of her 
wrung spirit was almost beyond her endur- 
ance. 

I had received several letters from her 
since her residence in Charleston, and in 
the last she had written to me she com- 
plained of severe indisposition. Anxious 
to hear tidings of her, one evening, when 
the same party that had accompanied her to 
the Delaware Water Gap were again assem- 
bled together, I sent to the post-office. A 
letter was handed to me, bearing the Charles- 
ton post-mark 3 on opening it, I found it was 



A LEGEND OF THE DELAWARE WATER GAP. 189 

from Le Roj's mother, stating, '^ that three 
days previous, Josephine had died in her 
first accouchement!" 

Silence and dust on that beautiful brow ! 
How could we realize an affliction so sudden 
and overwhelming? ''How many hopes 
were borne upon thy bier, oh, bride of 
stricken love !" 

The sad intelligence was abruptly com- 
municated to Mr. Gorden; a second attack 
of paralysis was the result; and in a few 
weeks the broken-hearted old man was laid 
beside his daughter ! 

In the Cemetery at Baltimore, as you en- 
ter the south gate, a monument of chaste 
and exquisite design arrests your attention. 
Reposing on a broad slab of Italian marble 
is an urn, wreathed with a light and grace- 
ful foliage of leaves and flow^ers; the em- 
blems are a torch reversed and a rose-bud 
broken — symbols of Love and Death. 

Beneath this is simply inscribed the name 
of Josephine ! 

Easton, Pa., 1841. 



190 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



Passage of the Blue Midge at the JDela- 
tvare Water Gap. 

BY DR. WILLIAM B. D E Y. 

Huge pile of Nature's majesty ! how oft 

The mind, in contemplation wrapt, has scann'd 

Thy form serene and naked ; if to tell, 

That when creation from old chaos rose, 

Thou wert as now thou art ; or if some cause, 

Some secret cause, has rent thy rocky mantle. 

And hurl'd thy fragments o'er the plain below. 

The pride of man may form conceptions vast, 

Of all the fearful might of giant power 

That rent the rampart to its very base, 

Giving an exit to Lenape's stream, 

And wildly mixing with woods and waters. 

A mighty scene to set enchantment free, 

Burst the firm barrier of eternal rock. 

If by the howling of volcanic rage. 

Or foaming terror of Noachian floods. 

Let fancy take her strongest flight; she ne'er 

Can reach the state of primoidal things, 

As darkness brooded o'er the deep abyss; 

"Where at the fiat of Eternal might. 

E"en the vast fabric of our planet Earth, 

Arose most beauteous from its Maker's hand, 

With flower, plant, and noble oak o'er^pread, 

And made the dwelling-place of man himself, 

In form majestic, but in foul a god. 

But, as for us, let speculations go, 

And be the food of geologic sons ; 

"Who from the pebble judge the mountain's form, 

And oft the structure of this dark terrene. 

Most all abstractionists assign a cause, 

If cause it be, for all created things; 



PASSAGE OF THE BLUE RIDGE. 191 

And in their wisdom dive into the deep, 

Or search the secret of the carbon mine ; 

Or scan the structure of a human skull, 

To prove the essence of the thought within ; 

Whilst to their minds, thus wrapt in darkness deep, 

The sun of light affords no ray of knowledge. 

Apart from these we'll carry on our theme, 

The wild and fearful pass, whose grandeur speaks 

A language known to every fearful eye; 

Breathing enchantment through the very bosom. 

Here was the home of Nature's hardy sons, 

The freeborn dwellers of their native soil. 

They had no equal — they were Nature's chief — 

Mighty ; magnanimous. But where are they ? 

Let echo answer, where ! The earth can tell 

A long sad tale of desolate despair. 

The broken mound, and moss-clad stone at best. 

Denote the spot where Indian grandeur sleeps. 

All else is still ; a death-shade to the mind ; 

The land of woe, of dark forgetful ness. 

The white man came with plunder on his wings, 

"With cursed love of gold — hypocrisy — 

And e'en the Cross, outstretch'd before his arms, 

To bring destruction on this happy race. 

And make a waste of all their fatherland. 

The mountain bird, the emblem of the free, 

Wild as old ocean in his boundless range. 

Here held his empire free at will to roam. 

Praise be to thee, thou monarch of the winds: 

However humble be the strain I give, 

Yet still to thee, thou king of native plumes I 

I willing give the off'ring of my heart. 

Lo ! my eyrie I form, far, far away. 

On the mountain's rocky crest ; 
The eaglet securely reposes there, 

In his wild and moss-bound nest. 



192 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

There, the wild tempest's rage disturbs it not, 

For, lo ! 'tis the place of the free ; 
And the nightvvind's moan, as it passes by, 

Is a dulcet-tone to thee. 

The lightning's flash, and the thunder's sound, 
That shakes the stern mountain form. 

Securely leave the bleak eyrie there, 
Untouched by the wrath of the storm. 

The warrior chief, as he hastened by 

In pursuit of the flying deer, 
Found not the home of the monarch bird, 

On his mountain crag so drear. 

A health to thee of the crested form, 

Thou pride of a nation's land ! 
May the foeman that aims a blow at thee, 

Lie low as his broken brand ! 

Forever perch on the mast of the brave, 

Forever be 'mid the fight, 
"When the sulphury smoke on the blast rides high, 

And the warrior tries his might. 

What arc the monuments of art, compared 
To nature's varied forms? Lenape's pass, 
Where flows the Delaware in silent pride. 
As if well conscious of his mighty name, 
Will ever claim the freeman's honest praise. 
The gorgeous temple that proud prelates reared, 
Drawn by the genius of an Angelo; 
The moss-grown monuments of Palenque ; 
The mighty structures of the plain of Thebes; 
The hundred columns of Persepolis; 
The Hindoo works among the rocks of Goa, 
Or Trajan's pillar on the banks of Tiber, 
Alike attest the wondrous art of man. 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 193 

But nature's self appears ! Her majesty 
Bewilders every thought, and loud proclaims 
The hand of Deity in all her works. 
Through nature we can look to nature's God, 
If in the zephyr, or the whirlwind blast ; 
The green savanna, or the burning desert; 
The foam of ocean, or the forest w^ood ; 
The purling stream, or wild Lenape's form ; 
The ragged rocks, majestic, bold, and grand; 
That rear their frowning battlements on high, 
Where glides the glassy stream of Delaware, 
The stranger's heart with ecstasy will fill. 
Till Time himself shall slumber on his car. 
And darkness reign amid the vast profound. 



Lost on the Moiuitain, 

The early autumn days in the country 
are the loveliest of the year : an atmosphere 
not 3^et obscured by the haze of Indian sum- 
mer, yet so cool and invigorating, that 
rambling over hills and climbing rugged 
summits, so tiresome in the sultry days of 
summer, are now delightful employments. 

Though the bright flowers of spring have 
withered on the frail stem, and the richer 
profusion of summer varieties are faded and 
falling, autumn fields are arrayed in a wealth 
of orange, purple, and gold, peculiarly their 
own. The outer foliage is tipped with the 

17 



194 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

same rich hues, whilst the forest itself still 
retains the vernal bloom of summer days. 
Ferns have attained their perfection of 
growth and beauty, and the mosses, the never 
changing, ever beautiful mosses, offer their 
humble tribute, alike to autumn, spring, 
summer, and winter. 

A rare enjoyment was afforded the visitors 
at the Water Gap on one of the lovely days 
of this season, in the autumn of 1867. 

At its close the guests were assembled at 
the supper-table, each relating his own ad- 
ventures, the discoveries made, and the en- 
joyments experienced. The name of one 
was mentioned who was observed by several 
during the afternoon as untiring, and who 
seemed to have visited almost every place of 
interest within reach of the day's excursion. 

Gifted to a high degree, refined and culti- 
vated, she found a multitude of objects for 
admiration and study : the mountain brook 
passing stealthily by in suppressed murmur- 
ings, or roaring and foaming over cascades 
and through wild ravines, is equally musical; 
the verdure-clad rocks are not passed by un- 
heeded, nor the trees, in their varied form 
and beauty, some grown gray in years, and 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 195 

from whose wide-spreading branches the 
mosses hang their silken tassels, and adorn 
the venerable trunk with crimson and frosted 
coraline. 

It was not a surprise that this lady did 
not appear first, at the evening meal, but 
when not found in her room, some anxiety 
began to be felt. 

She had been last seen by a returning 
party, near Prospect Rock, and though she 
expressed a desire to witness the setting sun 
from the summit of Mount Minsi, they did 
not suppose she would undertake the journey 
alone at that late hour. 

The supper is finished in silence. The 
sun is sinking deep behind the western hills. 
The chirping of winged insects in the over- 
hanging trees, always most welcome, now 
speak too plainly of coming night. The even- 
ing is chill and uncomfortable. The dew is 
falling, and darkness has thrown her mantle 
over the broad face of nature, closing the scene 
of an enchanting day, and leaving the drama 
of the night to be performed in darkness. 

All eyes are directed to the mountains. 
How dark and how solitary they appear ! 
Can it be that a lonely female is wandering 



196 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

in those gloomy shadows, over ragged rocks, 
through tangled woods and broken ravines ! 
Darker still o;rows the nio'ht and she does 
not appear ! The alarm has become wide- 
spread, and among the ladies 

" There was hurrying to and fro, 

And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress." 

Stalwart men are collecting in numbers 
from the village, and propose to organize 
with the guests of the Hotel for a thorough 
exploration of the mountain. Companies 
are formed and sections apportioned. 

All is hurry and confusion amid the din 
of preparation, but in half an hour signal 
guns are heard echoing along the mountain 
side and through the gorge. Fires are 
kindled on every prominence. How they 
glow and sparkle and roar, and how beauti- 
fully the bright blaze jets forth in eccentric 
currents, rising high in the still air, lighting 
up the tall old trees, and picturing ghostly 
shadows against the face of the pinnacled 
rocks. But how wonderfully circumscribed 
the extent of the illumination; the brilliant 
coruscations but make the blackness of night 
visible, and deepen the gloom of its shadows 
beyond. 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 197 



The inmates of a few scattered dwelling's 
along the base of the mountain are aroused 
from their early slumbers by a party sent in 
that direction. In answer to the inquiries 
about the lost lady, one of them had heard 
cries in the thicket further up the mountain, 
which sounded like some one in distress. He 
had called, but the cry then ceased, and he 
concluded it was a " painter." 

These tidings gave painful apprehensions 
to those who did not know the story was 
pure fiction, and manufactured for the bene- 
fit of " city people." 

The " thicket," however, is diligently 
searched, with silent forebodings of the fate 
of the lady in this dismal, tangled woods, 
while some, entertaining a more selfish view 
of the situation, are shuddering at the thought 
of a panther dropping suddenly upon them 
from an overhanging tree. 

A returning party from the summit at 10 
o'clock give no encouragement to the anxious 
numbers collected and in waiting at the foot 
of the mountain. 

They had reached the end of the pathway, 
and should the lady, in the darkness, have 
attempted to go further, or, by accident have 

17* 



198 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

fallen upon the loose stones of the descend- 
ing slope, she must have gone down and 
over the precipice, and we could only expect 
to find her mangled body on the projecting 
rocks hundreds of feet below. None are dis- 
posed to entertain this fearful conjecture, 
but more willing to conclude she must still 
be on the north side of the mountain. 

The night is growing colder. If she has 
fallen or become disabled, she must perish 
before morning. Eagerly the search is con- 
tinued. Every thicket in w^hich she might 
be deliriously wandering, and every known 
cliff from which she might have fallen, is 
thoroughly examined. 

A party is now sent to explore the ravine 
from " The Hunter's Spring" to ** Eureka." 
And whilst this search is in progress, let us 
turn to what was really transpiring, as sub- 
sequently revealed. 

After her friends had left her, the lady 
entered the open pathway leading up the 
mountain. Her impulse to follow it was 
irresistible. She had over two hours of day- 
light, and could readily reach the summit 
and return to the Hotel at a seasonable hour. 

She is now in the forest and alone, but 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 199 

not in solitude, for she communes with a 
multitude that speak the language and 
poetry of nature, with which her soul is in 
sweet harmony. She hears the winds, that 
have been sighing through the branches of 
these stately forest trees for a century, still 
croaking the melancholy tale heard by the 
red man with sad forebodings of his own un- 
happy fate, when he rested wearily under 
its shadows. 

Eureka's gurgling source, in concert with 
the music of the woods, grows w^ild, but not 
discordant, when from far down the ravine 
comes up the loud laughter of its foaming 
waters. 

Hard by is a little grotto, with its moss- 
covered floor. How invithig it looks ! Slie 
cannot resist resting a moment on its rocky 
parapet. How gracefully the rhododendrons 
bend over the fairy little chamber to afford 
a perpetually cooling archway ! The ferns 
stoop to kiss the tiny waters that ooze from 
the side of the grotto and trickle down the 
face of the rocks, like joyful tear-drops down 
the cheeks of a happy maiden. 

Near the grotto lies the trunk of a great 
old tree. The hand of man long since strip- 



200 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

ped it of its own covering and left it naked 
to the elements. She pauses to witness how 
lovingly the mosses have entwined it, re- 
clothing its weather-stained form with their 
own " silken verdure," and how beautified it 
appears in its green old age. But the little 
germs of kindred trees already growing upon 
its ruined body, and taking nourishment 
from its decaying fibres, speak of its speedy 
dissolution, and nature's generous effort to 
replace the fallen monarch, and restore the 
forest to its wonted beauty. 

Further on piles of huge rocks appear, 
covered with great sheets of velvet lichen, 
now, during the dry season, parched and 
rolled, but when moistened again, spread 
themselves over the granite surface, to com- 
mence life's struggle anew. What instruc- 
tive lessons the mosses and lichens teach us! 
Was ever so much beauty joined with such 
humility? Yet we step aside from our own 
pathway to trample on the tapestried mound, 
and ruthlessly destroy in a thoughtless mo- 
ment, the accumulated beauty and growth 
of a century ; not discerning that, 

"The tiny moss, whose silken verdure clothes 
The time-worn rock, and whose bright capsules rise, 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 201 

Like fairy urns on stalks of golden sheen, 

Demand our admiration and our j)raise, 

As much as cedar kissing the blue sky, 

Or Krubuls' giant flower. God made them all, 

And what He deigns to make, should ne'er be deem'd 

Unworthy of our study and our love." 

Oar lady friend, though lingering long in 
her communings with nature, gained the 
rugged summit in season to witness the glory 
of the sun's declining rays resting on the 
crest of the opposite mountain. 

It is not surprising that her mind was 
greatly absorbed in the contemplation of a 
scene like this. At this hour of the day 
the effect produced upon the commonest ob- 
server, is one of wonder and admiration. 
To her, it was positive enchantment. It 
awakened, too, the memories of her far-off 
mountain home. In imagination she is 
dwellino^ a«:ain in the highlands, surrounded 
by famihar objects, familiar faces, and re- 
ceiving pleasant greetings. 

She heeds not the passing moments, and 
is only awakened from her reverie by the 
shades of night falling gloomily upon the 
enchanting scene. Arousing herself and 
feeling chilled by the falling dew, she starts 



202 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

rapidly on lier return to the Hotel, three 
miles away. 

No fear has yet come upon her. She has 
the confidence acquired amid loftier ranges 
in her native mountains, and feels she can 
accomplish the journey without fear or fa- 
tigue. Once upon the open path she can 
keep it without difficulty. 

Proceeding but a short distance, however, 
she sees, or imagines she sees, a man ap- 
proaching. She steps aside from the path in 
the thick bushes to avoid being seen. Strange 
it is, that in solitary places, we are so much 
startled, and for a moment affrighted in com- 
ing suddenly in presence of beings like our- 
selves, though we may not ^' stand in awe of 
such a tiling,''' in the sense used by Shak- 
speare. 

In attempting to regain the pathway, it is 
supposed she took the opposite direction, and 
is soon wandering wearily through the wild 
woods, and in darkness, and for the first 
time fear comes upon her, — she is lost. 

Those only who have had the experience 
can understand the strange hallucination of 
mind produced by being lost on a cloudy 
day in the woods, and to what a painful de- 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 203 

gree.this delirium is increased when occur- 
ring at night and in a strange locality. It 
will be impossible for any one without this 
experience to comprehend the suffering con- 
dition of this young lady. 

To be lost is, for the time, to be non com- 
pos mentis. If one reasons at all, his reason- 
ing is upon false premises, and as to conclu- 
sions, he never arrives at any, or if he 
imagines he does, he has too little faith in 
his own perverted judgment to adopt them. 
He is at sea without chart or compass, and 
with a novice at the helm. The position of 
every object he sees or comes in contact 
with is reversed. The hills, the rocks, the 
trees, and all the landmarks with which he 
may have been once familiar, are familiar 
no longer; they are changed, and the direc- 
tion they point to is not the one his judg- 
ment inclines him to follow. 

The friendly light in the distant cottage 
is a star in the firmament. Even the streams 
flow in contrary directions, and he feels a 
little staggered to see for the first time, water 
running iip hill; but he knows it does, as 
well as he knows where he is, and if he 
could place sufiicient confidence in anything 



204 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

to swear by, he would be willing to make 
the declaration. 

Neither is he exactly sure that the ground 
he stands upon is terra firma, for it certainly 
swims, and as to the conformation of the 
earth's surface, there is a monstrous delusion 
about it somehow, for there is no level land 
nor descending grade, but the whole thing 
is an "up-hill business." He wanders about, 
never going straightforward, but travelling 
a mile or two in the direction he wishes to 
go, finds himself presently at the place of 
starting, slightly irritated and a little dis- 
composed. Again and again he makes the 
trial, with the same unfortunate results, until 
at last he begins seriously to discuss that 
most difficult of all questions, his own sanity. 

He finds it impossible to settle satisfac- 
torily this knotty question, but remains as 
much in doubt as to what step next to take 
to extricate himself from his unpleasant di- 
lemma, when he sits down quietly, and phi- 
losophically resolves to "wait for something 
to turn up." 

The young lady, bewildered and in dark- 
ness, is wandering in the same toilsome 
weary round, fearful to rest, and yet suffer- 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 205 

ing increasing terrors at every advancing 
footstep. All the sounds of the never-silent 
woods, the croaking vibrations of the tall 
trees, whose pinnacled branches catch the 
current of the passing winds, which made 
sweet music an hour ago, now send forth 
dismal sighs and unearthly moanings. 

Spectral shadows dance before her, darker 
than the forest gloom of night. The rustling 
of the leaves produced by her own weary 
tread, startle her, and she almost feels the 
fearful touch of some pursuing monster. 

From the summit runs a slope at a sharp 
angle to the edge of the precipice, covered 
with loose rocks and stones, detached from 
the crest by the frosts of many winters; along 
the edge of this precipice grow a few stunted 
trees, receiving precarious nourishment from 
earth filling the deep fissures in its exposed 
surface. 

As the tired deer through the thick forest 
by yelping hounds long pursued, leaves its 
only place of security and flies recklessly to 
the open plain, exposing itself to new and 
untried dangers, so this lady, pursued by her 
own desperate fears, and seeking relief from 
the terror of the woods, coming at length in 

18 



206 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

view of the open space, rims liurriedly out 
upon the rocky slope, and in a moment is 
carried down struggling with the moving 
mass to the edge of the precipice, and fran- 
tically clasps a tree, providentially in posi- 
tion to save her from impending destruction. 
She does not at first realize the peril of 
her new situation, but for a moment ex- 
periences a sense of relief in having escaped 
from what her harassed mind was no longer 
capable of enduring. She can now see the 
stars in the broad expanse of heaven, and 
a ray of comfort is afforded her in the wel- 
come light from a few scattered dwellings 
far below her along the margin of the river. 
In the dark woods she feared the sound of 
her own breathing, but now, for the first 
time, calls loudly for assistance. Too far 
below the summit for those to hear who were 
in search on the north side, and yet too high 
for the sound to strike the dwellings nearest 
the base of the mountain, she continues her 
cries with the full strength of her lungs 
for long, weary hours, but without any evi- 
dence that she is either heard or regarded. 
Her voice at length grows weak, and her 
frame is becoming exhausted, but her mind 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 207 

is fully alive to the hopelessness of her con- 
dition. Her life depended upon keeping the 
exact position in which she found herself 
placed. She could move neither to the right 
nor left. Behind her the treacherous rocks 
were ready to move with a touch and carry 
her over the precipice ; before her, the yawn- 
ing chasm. She could never wish herself 
back in those terrifying woods, yet she real- 
izes now that her last condition is worse than 
the first. 

! the agony, the fearfully protracted, 
the momentarily increasing agony of these 
despairing hours ! " Will no one hear me?" 
" Will no one come to my relief?" " Hope 
is dying within me ; I must perish here, and 
alone ?" 

Still clinging to the tree, she endeavors 
to write upon her tablet an account of her 
situation. Her whole life passes in review 
before her. Her home and the cherished 
associations of her childhood. One by one 
she calls her friends and kindred by name, 
and gives to each a lasting farewell, and in 
prayer commits her soul to God. 

At about the hour of eleven a messenger 
arrives at the Hotel, with the joyful intelli- 



208 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

gence that the cries of the lady had been 
heard on the south side of the mountain, 
and that two men had gone to her rescue. 
But can they reach her from that direction ? 

The men were hardy and strong, and fa- 
miliar with every pass. None knew better 
than they the hazardous nature of the enter- 
prise they w^ere about to engage in, but none 
more able nor more willing to execute it. 
An irregular circuitous journey of at least 
three miles must be performed before reach- 
ing that portion of the summit. 

They shout as they clamber along the base 
of the cliff, and she indistinctly hears the 
joyful signal, which gives her the first gleam 
of hope she has experienced in her long 
painful captivity. As they recede along the 
side of the mountain the sound of their 
voices die away, and she hears it no longer. 
She feels now that she has been but mocked 
and is abandoned to her fate, and the hope 
of rescue, entertained for a moment, is suc- 
ceeded by an overwhelming despondency. 
Her aching arms still cling to the friendly 
tree, but she feels she can retain her pre- 
carious position but a little while longer. 
The suffering cold, long endured, is now pro- 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 209 

ducing a stupefying drowsiness, against 
which she struggles with all the power of 
her strong will, w^ell knowing that one 
moment's sound unconscious sleep would 
loosen her hold, and then all would soon be 
over. But how hard to resist this imperative 
demand of nature ! If she could only move 
about, she might overcome the stupor, but 
she is a captive, held by flaming daggers 
bristling on every side. There is but one 
little spot upon all the broad earth on which 
her feet are permitted to rest. That dread- 
ful sensation of falling from giddy heights, 
which we sometimes experience in our 
dreams, is fearfully magnified during one of 
these drowsy intervals, but the horrible sen- 
sation produced, assists her in rallying to 
w^akeful consciousness. 

She looks up to the stars of heaven no 
longer, and the glimmering lights in the 
distant cottages flicker, faint, and die. Her 
dearest friends are but dim shadows in her 
fast-fading recollection, and the busy world, 
wdth all its beauties and its joys, is receding 
from her memory, and forever disappearing. 

There is at this moment floating upon the 
still air, the far-off sound of human voices, 

18* ■ 



210 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

whether dreaming, she knows not, but it 
is soothing bahii to her wearj^, sick souL 
Nearer as it approaches becomes the con- 
sciousness of its reality. Her ear is growing 
alive to the welcome music. Louder and 
more distinct appears the sound, and surely 
approaching. ! what joyful tidings, — it 
is the call of the two faithful, trusty men ! 

" Thank heaven my prayers are answered ! 
I live to see my rescue, and my reason is not dethroned !" 

The chilled, alraost lifeless body, is revita- 
lized, and to the weakness of a child is im- 
parted, in a moment, the wonted strength 
and firmness of a hero. 

So much has the mind a controlling in- 
fluence over the body, that it is fair to pre- 
sume that one less highly cultivated, logical, 
and vigorous in intellect, with a body of 
twice the strength of her own, would scarcely 
have survived this terrible ordeal. 

It will be remembered, that, in the expe- 
dition of Lieutenant Strain across the Isth- 
mus, the able-bodied laboring men, with the 
average lack of intellectual culture of their 
class, were the first to yield to the hard 
necessities of their situation, and the first 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 211 

to miserably perish ; whilst the Lieutenant, 
with the physician and two or three engi- 
neers, men of high order of culture, each of 
whom performed twice the amount of his 
share of labor, and endured a greater amount 
of privation from hunger, w^ere the only ones 
of the part}^ who survived the rigors of that 
terrible camjDaign. 

The tw^o men had now gained the summit, 
but at what toil and fearful risk of life, can 
only be understood by an examination of 
their route. Few men would be willing to 
make the ascent by daylight. They came 
along the edge of the summit, avoiding a too 
near approach to the sliding rocks, and at 
length arrived at the point where they ex- 
pected to find the lady ; but they were hor- 
rified on hearing the answer to their call, to 
find that she was far below them and on the 
very verge of the precipice. They did not, 
however, need to offer her words of assur- 
ance or encouragement; she was herself 
again, and felt that whatever of fortitude or 
courage might be required in the accomplish- 
ment of her rescue, she was disciplined for 
the work. 

For the first time the men found them- 



212 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

selves at fault. They needed now what 
seemed indispensable to her rescue — a rope. 
With it, one of the men could easily let him- 
self down the rocky slope, and support him- 
self by it in bearing up the precious burden. 
But no time was to be lost. They returned 
a short distance on the brow of the moun- 
tain, and found a place of easy descent to 
the crest, along which they passed with cau- 
tious steps, steadying themselves by support 
received from each other, and an occasional 
tree or twig, until they arrived near that 
most fearful position, where the moving mass 
of rocks had crowded on the edge of the 
precipice. She hears the cautious move- 
ments of the men, and gives kind encoura- 
ging words to their generous exertions. 
They are now almost within reach of her, 
yet fearing to take another step lest they 
set in motion the treacherous mass, and all 
be carried down together ; but they must 
pass over to her, or she to them. She will 
listen but to the one suggestion : she is will- 
ing and anxious to make the trial. She 
swings herself round the tree, one dexterous 
sprightly leap upon the angry rocks, — a sec- 
ond bound with fairy lightness, — a third, 



LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN. 213 

and she is safe in the hands of her rescuers. 
Siie scarcely needs assistance in following 
the footsteps of the men along the edge of 
the dangerous cliff. They gain the narrowed 
slope, which she ascends with the proffered 
aid of the men, and once more stands se- 
curely on the summit of Mount Minsi, grate- 
ful beyond the power of language to express. 
The three miles' walk to the Hotel is ac- 
complished easily and expeditiously, where 
she arrives at one o'clock in the morning; 
fervently acknowledges the earnest congrat- 
ulations of the anxious joyous multitude in 
w^aiting, walks firmly on to her chamber, 
and falls fainting on the floor. 



HISTORICAL. 



Sketch of the MiiiisinU and its JEarly 
l^eople. 

From the earliest intercourse of our ances- 
tors with the aboriginal inhabitants, that 
portion of the Delaware situated north of 
the Blue Ridge or Kittatinny Mountain, has 
been known as the Minisinh. It properly 
comprises all the territory north of the moun- 
tain — up to an uncertainly defined limit — 
drained by the river Delaware and its tribu- 
taries. We speak of it, however, as that 
portion adjacent to the river and the valley 
lands of its branches, fiear their confluence 
with the Delaware. Its extent up the river 
is not definitely fixed. It is sometimes 
spoken of as terminating at the Naversink, 
then at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, while 

(214) 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 215 

others contend that the name embraced the 
whole of the upper valley of the Delaware. 

The signification of the word " Minisink " 
is said to be, the water is gone. There is lit- 
tle authority in proof of this definition, and 
that only traditional, hence it will always 
be entertained with much doubt. There 
seems, however, to be no doiiht that there 
was such a tradition, and if the wonderful 
phenomenon of the bursting asunder of the 
mountain at the Water Gap, and the sudden 
dis'appearance of a lake of such magnitude 
as must have then existed, occurred at any 
time during which the natives occupied this 
portion of the country, it would have been 
an event of such moment as to cause its ready 
transmission from generation to generation, 
down to the period of their intercourse with 
the European settlers.* 

* The tradition was that long ago, and before the Dehi- 
ware broke through the mountain at the Water Gap, these 
lands, for thirty or forty miles along it, were covered by a 
lake, but became drained by the breaking down of that part 
of the dam which confined it. And the people who lived 
upon the lands from which the water had retired were called 
" Minsies," because they lived upon land from which the 
water had gone. 

The name in the first instance was descriptive of the land, 
and afterwards applied to the Indians who lived upon it. — 
Eager' s History of Orange County. 



216 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

The wonderful action of the aqueous ele- 
ment in this valley is abundantly evident. 
It is visible on the sides of the mountain, 
as well as in the valleys and table lands. 
Conical-shaped hills, such as are so promi- 
nent in Shaw's meadows, in Cherry Valley, 
and the sand-hills near the mouth of the 
Bushkill, are to be seen all through the Mini- 
sink. 

These diluvial cones are not composed of 
the surrounding material, nor are they like 
the eternal hills in their inner structure, 
but a mass of pebbles and sand from base to 
apex, with an occasional well-rounded boul- 
der; proving conclusively the action of water 
in their formation. There is also evidence 
of glacial action in the striated and furrowed 
rocks in place. All theories, however, of 
the formation of the passage of the Dela- 
ware through the mountain are in doubt, 
and to each are presented obstacles which 
the light of science may or may not hereafter 
remove. The whole valley presents an in- 
teresting field for geological investigation, 
and is studded with beautiful landscape pic- 
tures. 

In this valley, and among these moun- 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 217 

tains, or perhaps on the borders of the Great 
Lake, once dwelt a branch of the ancient 
Lenni Lenape nation, known as the Minsi 
tribe. For how many centuries their " coun- 
cil fires" were lighted on the margin of these 
waters, we shall perhaps never know with 
any degree of certainty. 

The '' Minsis" were distinguished not only 
for their valor, when that quality was brought 
into requisition, but equally distinguished for 
honesty and integrity. It appears really 
wonderful to those who have inquired closely 
into the character of these simple-minded 
dwellers of the forest, how many they pos- 
sessed of those nobler traits of character 
which adorn civilized life, and how much 
more exalted a sense of Deity they enter- 
tained than is ordinarily manifested in sav- 
age nations. "They w^orshipped a spirit 
whom they called the Great Mcmnitio, which 
answers to our sacred word God or Creator, 
and who, though invisible, was recognized 
as the great First Cause." 

After all we have heard in general dero- 
gation of the character of the North Ameri- 
can Indians, we should be almost incredu- 
lous at this evidence of the intuitive per- 

19 



218 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

ception on the part of the Lenapes, of that 
which not only the light of civilization, but 
the sacred truths of Divine Revelation seem 
scarcely sufficient to inspire in the minds 
of enlightened nations, were it not derived 
from sources we cannot question. And it 
appears, also, that they were to a remark- 
able degree susceptible to the impressive 
teachings of such men as David and John 
Brainerd, Heckewelder, Ziesberger, and 
others ; and that the light of Christian civ- 
ilization for which they seemed to be yearn- 
ing was already beginning to dawn. 

But it is melancholy to contemplate, that 
the good seed sown by these earnest and 
zealous men, after giving signs of a perma- 
nent growth and the promise of a fruitful 
harvest, should be trodden under and almost 
eradicated by others, professing to believe in 
and be governed by the same Christian pre- 
cepts, but whose conduct showed them to 
the poor Indians to be more vile and wicked 
than the most abandoned of their own peo- 
ple. Whose sole object appeared to be, to 
cheat them of their lands, destroy their hum- 
ble habitations, and, finally, to exterminate 
the race. 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 219 

The missionary labors among the Lenapes 
were at first attended with good results. 
The Moravians established their mission at 
Bethlehem, in 1742, and David Brainerd 
commenced his labors at Crosswicks, in New 
Jersey, the year following. 

There was an Indian village in Cherry 
Valley not far from the Wind Gap, which 
the Moravians visited by invitation in 1747. 
The place was called Mlniolagameha (mean- 
ing a spot of rich land amidst that which is 
barren) . 

Besides the mission-house at Bethlehem, 
the Moravians had various stations through- 
out the Delaware, Lehigh, and Susquehanna 
Valleys. There was a station at Dunsbury 
(Stroudsburg), on the west side of Brodhead's 
Creek, near the iron bridge ; and one at 
Walpack in the Minisink. 

The mission at Bethlehem was visited in 
one year by 800 diiferent Indians. 

The first one baptized was Joshua, in 1742. 
He lived a Christian life and died in 1775. 
He was an assistant in the missionary work, 
and was the instrument of much good among 
his people. After our Indians were driven 
first to the Susquehanna and then to the 



220 DELAWARE AVATER GAP, 

West, Joshua labored among them at their 
settlement near Pittsburg. 

It appears very wonderful to us who live 
in this progressive age, that these people, en- 
dowed with many capacities and who seemed 
to be on the very verge of civilization, should 
have remained for hundreds and perhaps 
thousands of years, without approaching any 
nearer; doing just what their fathers did 
and nothing more. No one mighty mind to 
break the frail trammels that bound him to 
the dusky past, and soaring high above the 
rest, lift the thin veil that shut out from his 
vision the light of intellectual day. 

Does it not teach us that there is no real 
progress in the human races, outside of the 
influences of the Christian religion, and a 
recognition of the truths of the Bible ? The 
wild Arabs of to-day are those of long cen- 
turies past. As they were seen and known 
then, we see them and know them now — 
still groping in the dark, still wandering in 
the desert. 

There seems to be no doubt that these In- 
dians desired to live on terms of friendship 
with the white settlers; they evidently look- 
ed upon them as a superior order of beings, 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 221 

and, at first, thinking to be made wiser and 
better by their teaching and example, they 
were made welcome, so far as the simple na- 
tive manners of these people could testify. 

Could we have more conclusive evidence 
of the friendly disposition of the Minsis, 
than is derived from the fact, that for more 
than half a century they lived quietly and 
peaceably with the white settlers in this 
valley, and permitted them to cut down 
their forests and cultivate their best hunting 
grounds, all unprotected as the confiding 
settlers were, against their overpowering 
numbers, and the means they possessed of 
exterminating them without warning, should 
they be disposed at any time to do so ! 

Yet, in all this long period of years, we 
hear of the commission of no single act of 
violence on the part of the Indians. And 
when the general outbreak occurred in 1755, 
those w^ho had dealt fairly and honorably 
with them, were as secure in their persons 
and property as before, and were never known 
to have been disturbed. 

But was there not sufficient provocation 
for this outbreak ! Was there not already 
cause for it in 1737, in the infamous " walk- 

19* 



222 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

ing purchase," when the full effect of that 
outrageous fraud became apparent in the loss 
of their long-cherished possessions in the 
Minisink ! 

At the council held at Philadelphia, in 
1742, called at the request of the Governor, 
Thomas Penn, the Delawares and Six Na- 
tions were each represented. The Governor's 
object was to make complaints to the latter, 
of the Delawares, as he had threatened in 
his letter of 1741, and induce the Six 
Nations to enforce his claim for the lands in 
the Minisink, as well as in the Forks, and 
oblige them to quit the country. There were 
of the Six Nations then present 230 in num- 
ber. The Delawares now being under a 
species of vassalage to that nation. 

The question of the " walking purchase," 
which took place in 1737, was discussed at 
this council. 

When settlers began to move upon the 
lands in the Forks and the Minisink, which 
they did soon after this purchase was made, 
great dissatisfaction was expressed by the 
Delawares. They declared the "walk" a 
fraud as to the whole of the territorj^ em- 
braced in its limits, and particularly that 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 223 

portion claimed north of the Kittatinny 
Mountain, which included the Minisink, and 
they declared their determination to main- 
tain its possession by force. 

Several versions of the walk have been 
given, differing, however, but slightly. That 
rendered to Mr. John Watson by Moses 
Marshall, son of Edward, who had often re- 
ceived it from his father, is subjoined, be- 
cause it is concise, and embraces, perhaps, 
all the facts. 

" Notice was given in the public papers, 
that the remaining day and a half's walk 
was to be made, and offering 500 acres of 
land anywhere in the purchase, and <£5 in 
money to the person who should attend and 
w^alk the furthest in the given time. By 
previous agreement the Governor was to 
select three white persons, and the Indians 
a like number of their own nation. The 
persons employed by the Governor were 
Edward Marshall, James Yates, and Solomon 
Jennings. One of the Indians was called 
Combush, but the names of the other two are 
forgotten. 

"About the 20th of September (or when 
the days and nights are equal), in the year 



224 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

1737, they met, before sunrise, at the old 
chestnut tree at Wrightstown Meeting-house, 
together with a great number of persons as 
spectators. The walkers all stood with one 
hand against the tree, until the sun rose, and 
then started. 

" In two hours and a half they arrived at 
Red Hill in Bedminster, where Jennings 
and two of the Indians gave out. The other 
Indian (Combush) continued with them to 
near where the road forks at Easton, where 
he laid down a short time to rest ; but on 
getting up was unable to proceed further. 
Marshall and Yates j^roceeded on, and ar- 
rived at sundown, on the north side of the 
Blue Mountain. They started again next 
morning at sunrise. While crossing a stream 
of water at the foot of the mountain, Yates 
became fiiint, and fell. Marshall turned 
back and supported him until others came to 
his relief, and then continued the walk alone, 
and arrived at noon on a spur of the Second 
or Broad Mountain (Pocono), estimated to 
be 86 miles* from the place of starting, at 



* It is onl}' about 65 miles to the Pocono, or Broad Moun- 
tain, from Wrightstown Meeting-house in a direct line. 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 225 

the chestnut tree below Wrightstown Meet- 
ing-house. 

" He says they walked from sunrise to sun- 
set, without stopping, provisions and refresh- 
ments having been previously provided at 
different places along the road and line that 
had been run and marked for them to walk 
by to the top of the Blue Mountain; and 
persons also attended on horseback, by relays, 
with liquors of several kinds. When they 
arrived at the Blue Mountain they found a 
great number of Indians collected, expect- 
ing the walk would there end ; but when 
they found it was to go half a day further, 
they were very angry, and said they were 
cheated — Penn had got all their good land 
— but that in the spring every Indian was 
to bring him a buckskin, and they would 
have their land again, and Penn might go 
to the devil with his poor land. An old 
Indian said, ^ No sit down to smoke, — no 
shoot a squirrel; but hin, Iwi, lun, all day 
long!' 

'' Marshall says his father never received 
any reward for the walk, although the Gov- 
ernor frequently j^romised to have the 500 



226 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

acres of land run out for liim, and to which 
he was justly entitled." 

The injustice of this walk was complained 
of at the time by the Indians. An ordinary 
day's Avalk was a well-defined distance by 
the Indians, and a day and a half's walk, as 
computed according to their understanding 
of the expression, reached from the place of 
starting to the south side of the Blue Moun- 
tain. But when they found Marshall's walk 
embraced their favorite hunting-grounds in 
the Minisink, and the seat of the ancient 
council fires of the Minsis, they were hidig- 
nant beyond measure. 

The Governor seems to have attached 
great importance to the '^walking purchase," 
forgetting, however, that his predecessor 
made sale of lands in the Minisink ei<>ht or 
nine years before that purchase was consum- 
mated, and what was still more outrageous, 
if possible, the government sent up a party 
to survey the land and dispossess those who 
had previously purchased of the Indians. 

This was the expedition headed by Nicho- 
las Scull, the Surveyor General, in 1730. 
On this occasion they led their horses through 
the Water Gap, and had great difficulty in 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY TEOPLE. 227 

passing over the Indian trail along the river. 
This was just seventy years before the road 
through tlie Gap was built. 

Scull and his deputy, J. Lukens, both 
spoke the Indian language and had employed 
Indian guides. They had, no doubt, as ap- 
pears, '^a very fatiguing journey, there being 
then no white inhabitants in the upper part 
of Bucks or Northampton counties." 

The venerable Samuel Preston, from whose 
interesting letter, written in 1828, the above 
information is derived, was slightly in error 
in speaking of Northampton County at that 
date, as that stronghold of democracy w^as 
not organized into a county until twenty- 
two years after the event spoken of. Bucks 
County then extended in the Minisink, and 
Smithfield township had no definite limits 
excepting on the south, commencing at the 
Gap, and extending north and west as far 
as the white inhabitants had the temerity to 
penetrate in the wilderness. 

When the surveying party arrived at the 
venerable Samuel Depui's, they found great 
hospitality, and plenty of the necessaries of 
life. The first thing that struck them with 



228 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

admiration was a grove of apple trees, of size 
far beyond any near Philadelphia. 

As Samuel Depui had treated them so 
well, they concluded to make a survey of his 
claim, in order to befriend him, if necessary. 
When they began to survey, the Indians 
gathered round ; an old Indian laid his hand 
on Scull's shoulder, and said, " Pat up iron 
strinf] — go liomeT They quit, and returned. 

This may perhaps have been one of the 
Indians, Waugoaideiineggea or Pemioggue, who 
had conveyed the same lands to Nicholas 
Depui three years before, in 1727, the deed 
for which is now in possession of the Penn- 
sylvania Historical Society. 

Mr. Depui was obliged to repurchase the 
land of William Allen, three years after this 
visit. 

There is probably an error in the fore- 
going statement, either on the part of Mr. 
Preston or Nicholas Scull. The " venerable 
Samuel Depui " spoken of, must have been 
Nicholas Depui, the first settler. He was 
certainly alive when the deed from Allen 
was executed, in 1733. Samuel was his son. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to state that 
long before the occurrence of the incidents 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 229 

here related, the " Mliisis " and other tribes 
of the " Lenape " nation, living on or near 
the Delaware, were called, indiscriminately, 
by the white people, Delaware Indians^ with- 
out regard to their tribal relation. 

This designation commenced, of course, 
some years after the name of the river was 
chauired. 

Lord Delaware, in honor of whom it was 
renamed, came to Virginia about 1610. 
The Lenapes called the riwer Lenape-Wihittiic 
— river of the Lenapes. 

For many years after the white settlers 
first came to the Minisink, the degradation 
and suffering of the Delawares, though com- 
menced, had not penetrated this beautiful 
valley. They had escaped behind this moun- 
tain fastness, the devastating storm that was 
raging without, and their scattered numbers 
who felt its withering blast came here for a 
refuge, and to cluster round the seat of their 
ancient council fires, to chant anthems of 
the glorious past and to weep over the ruin 
that was portending. 

They felt that they had one spot left, and 
one very dear, that they could yet claim as 

20 



230 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

tlieir own, and call bj the fond name of 
home. 

Alas! how few the years before the com- 
pass and "iron string" encircled the last 
forest and blasted the last hope of the great- 
est of the Lenapes on the banks of Lenape's 
river. 

The continued peace and security which 
the early settlers enjoyed in this valley, and 
particularly at this juncture, when the In- 
dians were suffering so much on every hand 
by the intrigues of the whites and the cruelty 
of their enemies, is proof of the amiable char- 
acter of the Minsi Indians, and that they 
were at all times inclined to deal justly and 
live fraternally with those who manifested 
a like disposition. 

What remains to be said of these people, 
or all that can be said in this connection, is 
but little, and that little very sad. 

Teedyuscung had since the cruel decree 
of 1742, been collecting the scattered rem- 
nants of the Delawares together for their 
final exit. No rest for the soles of their feet 
in all this broad domain. Scarce a hiding- 
place for the hunted fugitives, whose nation 
once ruled an empire of such grand propor- 



THE MINISINK AND ITS EARLY PEOPLE. 231 

tions. They fled to Wyoming, where, in 
1763, their chief was burned to death in his 
own wigwam, by some emissary of the Six 
Nations. 

A Christian of their tribe named Netawaf- 
aioees, was chosen chief. They moved to 
Wyalusing, formed a colony, commenced the 
cultivation of the soil, built a church and 
comfortable dwellings, and were pursuing 
the lives of civilized men. Tliey prospered 
greatly, and all things seemed for a time en- 
couraging. 

But the inevitable " John Smith," in the 
form of a land speculator, was on their track. 
A warrant was laid upon the lands they 
had chosen, and the government sustained 
the claim. The " iron string " again en- 
circled their home ; their houses and church 
as well as their lands became the property 
of others. 

And now, fugitives again, we hear of them 
next on the Muskingum, their chief dead 
from grief, and Coquehagetoii his successor. 
They are now in the midst of the Revolution. 
The Six Nations as well as some of their own 
scattered numbers have joined the British 
forces. What will this remnant of the Dela- 



232 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

wares do ? They dare not remain neutral, 
and what hope have they in the success of 
either of the contending parties ! General 
Brodhead has command at Fort Pitt. He 
sends for the chief Coquehageton. He states 
the perilous situation of his army, and sues 
for the aid of the Delawares. 

The chief of a ruined nation, not in anger 
but in sorrow, relates their grievances and 
the sufferings his people have endured by 
those who now call upon them for assistance. 
Moved to tears by the recital of his own sad 
history, he ends by teaching us 

"How beautifully falls from human lips, 
The blessed woi'd forgive." 

He joins the American standard. The 
war-cry is once more heard among those 
who were so recently taught by Christian 
men the lessons of peace ; but this time they 
are to engage in a cause from which they 
have all to lose and nothing to gain. 

"Mad from life's history, 
Glad of death's my.stery, 
Swift to be hurled — 
Anywhere, any whe: e, 
Out of the world." 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN THE MINISINK. 233 



JEarly Settlements in the 3Tinisink,'^ 

It is difficult to determine the exact date 
of the first European settlement in the upper 
valley of the Delaware. That there were 
wdiite people here at an early period, even 
before the arrival of William Penn at Phila- 
delphia, seems now to be generally admitted; 
but it must be confessed that concerning 
those who inhabited the Minisink previous 
to 1725, we have very little knowledge. 

The Depuis and Van Campens, were the 
first settlers in the lower Minisink whose 
family we are enabled to trace. 

It is quite certain that the first tide of 
immigration into this valley, flowed from 
the direction of the Hudson, and so down 
the valleys of the Mamakating and Naver- 
sink, and entering the Minisink at the Dela- 



* The History of the Minisink, now in course of prepara- 
tion, and from which a few extracts are here given, will em- 
brace some account of each of the early families settled in 
the neighborhood, and the author will be glad to receive 
from any member of such families, whatever information of 
general interest he may possess — tbe date of their arrival 
in the country, the names of each of the descendants still re- 
siding here, &c. 

20* 



234 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

ware, spread throngliout its borders. Pre- 
vious to 1780 there were very few settlers 
here from any other direction. They made 
selection of the level lands along the river, 
and in a few instances their descendants oc- 
cupy the original possession. 

A receding wave as it may be termed, set 
in from the southwest after 1780, bringing 
mainly descendants from the early settlers 
in Philadelphia, Bucks, and Northampton 
Counties. This class, located in Cherry 
Valley, on Brodhead's Creek, and the Valley 
of the Pocono. This immigration continued 
till about the year 1800. 

A second wave Howing from the same di- 
rection, brought to Stroudsburg and vicinity, 
a considerable class of our most respectable 
citizens, mostly from Bucks County. In the 
same tide came the Germans from what is 
known as the '^Dry Lands," of Northampton 
County. They swept by the valley settlers 
and located on the higher lands overlooking 
the river. The whole range of what is 
known as the Shawnee Hills, extending from 
Brodhead's Creek to the Delaware, below 
the mouth of the Bushkill, is almost entirely 
owned and occupied by this class of people. 



DEPUI FAMILY. 235 

This immigration took place between tlie 
years 1800 and 1820. 

Among the first settlers of the Minisink, 
up to 1780, many of whose decendants still 
reside here, we find the names of Depui, 
Van Cam pen, Van Auken, Van Etten, Van 
Demark, Westbrook, Westfall, Brink, Shoe- 
maker, Chambers, De Witt, Brodhead, Hynd- 
shaw, McMichael, McDowell, Drake, Stroud, 
Rosenkrance, Quick, Jayne, Fish, Price, Cort- 
right, Transue, Storm, Middaugh, Dingman, 
La Bar, Hanna, Decker, Bossard, Bittenben- 
der. Wills, Detrick, Keller, Smith, Long, 
Miller, Logan, Hauser, Bush, Hilborn, Ben- 
son, Van Vliet, Learn, Shaw, Overfield, Cool- 
baugh, Peters, Brown, Kuykendall, &c. 

The first families, settled in the lower por- 
tion of the Mini sink, of whom we can now 
give a connected genealogy, are the Depuis, 
Van Campens, Brodheads, and Strouds. 



Dejyui Family. 

Nicholas Depui was a Huguenot — French 
Protestant of the period of the religious wars 
in that country — who, with many others. 



236 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

fled from France to Holland in the year 
1685, when Louis XIV exposed them to 
Papal vengeance by revoking the edict of 
Nantes. 

It was, probably, soon after this date that 
Mr. Depui, having fled to Holland, came 
with others from that country, and settled 
in New York. 

He lived a short time at Esopus, and came 
to the Minisink in 1725. 

He purchased a large portion of the level 
land in which the present town of Shawnee 
is situated, of the Minsi Indians, in 1727, 
and likewise the two large Islands in the 
Delaware — Shawano and Manwalamink. He 
also purchased the same property of William 
Allen in 1733. 

Few communities can lay claim to a family 
of greater worth and respectability ; and 
fewer still can witness a reputation, such as 
this family possessed, maintained untarnished 
for five successive generations. 

For nearly half a century, Mr. Depui and 
other members of his family continued in 
undisturbed friendship with the Indians of 
the Minisink ; and after the main body of 
the tribe were exiled, the few who fondly 



DEPUI FAMILY. 237 

lingered until the outbreak of 1755 — when 
they were hunted like wild beasts of the 
forest — ever found a generous welcome at his 
door. 

Mr. Eobert Reading Depui, of Strouds- 
burg, is the sole surviving representative of 
this branch of the family in the Minisink. 
He still owns the large stone mansion, located 
on the original purchase, and also the upper 
island, known in the earlier records as 
" Manwalamink." 

His father was named Nicholas; his grand- 
father, Nicholas ; his great -grandfither, 
Samuel ; his great-great-grandfather, Nicho- 
las. 

A more complete genealogy will be given, 
in the work contemplated, of this and other 
families in the Minisink, and also their con- 
nection with the history of the Valley. 

There was another family of Depuis, 
probably relatives of the first Nicholas, in 
the Minisink, residing first in New Jersey, 
near Flat Brook. 

Daniel, Benjamin, Aaron, and John, are 
mentioned at an early period. The venera- 
ble Aaron Depui, who died a few years ago, 
w^as a descendant of one of these, and whose 



238 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

children, grandcliildreii, and great-grand- 
children number many hundreds at this 
time. Daniel Depui purchased the grist 
mill and 54 acres of land of Nicholas Depui 
in 1753. Aaron Depui, with Charles Brod- 
head and Benjamin Shoemaker, were com- 
missioned by Governor Morris to treat with 
the Susquehanna Indians in 1755. Soon 
after, Aaron Depui had charge of a company 
to go to the Susquehanna, but was detained in 
order to give protection to the settlers in the 
Minisink, who were invaded by the Indians. 
There was also a Moses Depui here, who 
was appointed a magistrate in 1747. 



Van Canipen Family. 

Col. Abram Van Campen came to the 
Minisink about the same time as Mr. Depui. 
He purchased a large body of land in what 
is now called Pahaquarra (Pahaqualine), on 
the opposite side of the river. ^\q miles 
above Nicholas Depuis. 

Abram Van Campen had four sons, Ben- 
jamin, Moses, Abram, and John. Benjamin 
died young. 



VAN CAMPEN FAMILY. 239 

Abram had two sons^ named James and 
Abram. 

John had one son, named Abram. 

Abram* the son of Abram, and grandson 
of Abram, had one son, who is the venerable 
Moses Van Campen, now living on a part of 
the original purchase of his great-grand- 
father. 

The Van Campens were always an influ- 
ential and highly respectable family in the 
Minisink. Col, Abram Van Campen was 
prominent in the early history of this portion 
of New Jersey. He was actively engaged 
in defending the frontier, during the Indian 
war of 1755, and was one of the first judges 
of the county of Sussex, in New Jersey 
(which then embraced a portion of the Mini- 
sink), which was organized on the 20th No- 
vember, 1753. Jonathan Eobeson,'j- Abram 



* John Adams, while attending Congress, during its ses- 
sions at Phihidelphia, as hite as 1800, passed down the " Mine 
road " as the most eligihle route from Boston to that city. 
He was accustomed to lodge at Squire Van Campen's, in the 
Jersey Minisinks. — Infortmdion from Albeit G. Brodhead, 
Esq., of Bethlehem — ReicheVs Memo?'ials of the Moravian 
Church. 

f Jonathan Eoheson was the grandson of Andrew Robe- 
son, who came to America with W^illiam Penn, and was a 



240 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Van Campen, John Anderson, Jonathan 
Petitt, and Thomas Wolverton, Esqs., were, 
bj the order of his Majesty, King George II, 
commissioned Judges of the Pleas, with 
jDower likewise to act as Justices of the 
Peace. 

John Van Campen, son of Col. Abram, 
actively espoused the cause of the Pennamites 
in the Connecticut troubles, and was in fre- 
quent correspondence with President Reed 
during the Ee volution. He lived in the 
stone house which stood in Shawnee, where 
the residence of Mr. George Y. Bush is now 
located; the latter, with Benjamin Y. Bush, 
Esq., are his grandsons. 



JBrodJiead Family, 

Daniel Brodhead was the ancestor of those 
who bear the name in the United States. 
He was born in Yorkshire, England, and 

member of Governor Markham's Privy Council. The 
present Secretary of the Navy is a descendant in the seventh 
generation. The Secretar^^'s father, grandfather, great- 
grandfather, great -great -grandfather, great -great -great- 
grandfather, and great-great-great-great-grandfather each in 
his turn have worn the judicial ermine. 



BRODHEAD FAMILY. 241 

was a captain of grenadiers, and a royalist 
in the reign of King Charles II, by whom 
he was ordered to join the expedition under 
Col. Nichols, which captured New Nether- 
lands (New York) from the Dutch in 1664. 
He settled in Ulster Count}^, N. Y., was 
commander-in-chief of the militia forces at 
Kingston in 1665, and died in 1670. By 
his wife Ann Tye, he had three sons, Daniel, 
Charles, and Richard. 

Second Generation. 

1. Daniel, died young. 

2. Charles, married Maria Tenbrook, of 
Ulster County, and had four children, one of 
whom was nan^ed Wessel. 

3. Kichard, was born in 1666, in Marble- 
town ; married Miss Jansen, by whom he 
had one son, named Daniel. 

Third Generation. 

1. Wessel Brodhead, son of Charles, was 
the father of the E-ev. Jacob Brodhead, who 
preached many years ago in the Dutch Ke- 

21 



242 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

formed Church in Crown Street, Philadel- 
23hia, and afterwards in Brooklyn, at which 
city he died. Jacoh Brodhead was the father 
of John Romeyn Brodhead the historian, 
now living in New York. 

2. Daniel Brodhead, son of Richard, was 
born at Marbletown, N. Y., in 1693 ; he 
married Hester Wyngart, and moved to 
Pennsylvania in 1737. He settled on Ana- 
loming Creek, called since that time Brod- 
head's Creek. He purchased 640 acres of 
land, in the centre of which East Strouds- 
burg is now located. The western boundary 
line started near the old forge, passed near 
the graveyard, and continued on the west 
side of the creek till beyond what is called 
the " Flower Garden." Besides East Strouds- 
burg, the tract embraced the properties now 
owned by Mr. Robert Brown and Mr. Chris- 
tian Smith. He afterwards purchased what 
is now the eastern portion of Stroudsburg, 
as far as the mill-dam of Mr. William Wal- 
lace. He called the settlement Dansbury, 
and it was known by that name till Strouds- 
burg was founded by Jacob Stroud in 1769. 

In 1744 Daniel Brodhead first became 
acquainted with the Moravian Missionaries, 



BRODHEAD FAMILY. 243 

jShatv, Bruce, and Macli\ whose way to 
Shekomeko (in Dutchess Co., N. Y.), passed 
through his settlement. With the character 
of these self-sacrificing Christian men he was 
very favorably impressed, and was their warm 
friend and supporter ever after, in the face 
of much wjiaential opposition at the time. 
They established a mission-house on his 
property, which was situated on the west 
side of the creek, near the iron bridge, and 
was called Dansbury mission. In the out- 
break of 1755, he is represented as a man of 
great courage and intrepidity, remaining 
with his sons and defending his fiimily, and 
others who came there for assistance, against 
the attacks of the Indians, when the. whole 
surrounding country had been abandoned. 

Daniel Brodhead had ten children. Four 
sons and one daughter survived him, named, 
Daniel, Garret, Charles, Luke, and Ann Gar- 
ten. 

. He died on a visit to Bethlehem, July 22d, 
1755. 



244 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



Fourth Generation. 

Sons of Daniel : 

1. Daniel, married Elizabeth Depui, daugh- 
ter of Samuel Depui, of Smithfield. After 
her death, he married Gov. Mifflin's widow. 
He left several daughters, and one son, named 
Daniel, who died when a young man. 

He was a general in the army of the Revo- 
lution, and had command at Fort Pitt, in 
1780, and after the war, was appointed Sur- 
veyor-General. 

2. Garret Brodhead was also an officer of 
the Revolutionary army. Richard Brodhead 
and John Brodhead were his sons. 

Albert Gallatin Brodhead, of Bethlehem, 
William Brodhead and Garret Brodhead, of 
Pike County, Charles Brodhead, who died 
several years ago, and the late Hon. Richard 
Brodhead, U. S. Senator, are sons of Richard. 
The sons of John were Daniel Mifflin Brod- 
head, John Hena Brodhead, Henry Brod- 
head, and William Franklin Brodhead. John 
H. is the only one living of the sons of John. 

Charles Brodhead, of Bethlehem, is a son 
of Albert Gallatin; Frank Brodhead, of Port 



BRODHEAD FAMILY. 245 

Jervis, is a son of William ; Albert G. Brod- 
head, Jr., of Maiich Chunk, is a son of Gar- 
ret; Charles D. Brodhead, of Stroudsbiirg, is 
a son of Charles ; John Brodhead, formerly of 
Philadelphia, and President of the Camden 
and Atlantic City Railroad, is a son of Daniel 
Mifflin ; Rev. Augustus Brodhead, mission- 
ary to India, is a son of John II.; Richard 
Brodhead, at Bethlehem, is a son of the late 
Hon. Richard. 

3. Charles Brodhead was appointed one of 
the first magistrates in the Minisink.* He 
was also appointed by Gov. Morris to treat 
with the Indians on the Susquehanna, in 
1755, and gave great offence to the chief of 
the Delawares, Teedyuscung, by reporting 
him to the governor as secretly unfriendly 
to the English. He married, and moved to 
the State of New York. He was the father 
of the Hon. John C. Brodhead, and Daniel 
Brodhead, M. C. from that State. 

* The first commissions appear to have been made out to 
Charles Brodhead and Moses Depui in 1747. But Nicholas 
Depui certainly seems to have acted in the capacity of an 
officer of that kind several years before. " In 1710 Nicholas 
Depui, of Smithfleld, in the Minisink, gave an order on the 
treasurer of Bucks County, for the payment of bounty on six- 
teen wolf scalps, delivered to him and killed by one man." 

21* 



246 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

4. Luke Brodhead was a captain during a 
greater part of the Eevolution, and was com- 
missioned a colonel the same day as his bro- 
ther, the general. He was an intimate friend 
of Lafaj^ette, and was desperately wounded 
at the battle of Brandywine. 

He was appointed magistrate during the 
Connecticut troubles in Wyoming, though 
still residing in Smithfield. He married 
Elizabeth Harrison, and had five sons and 
three daughters: Thomas, John, Luke, Dan- 
iel, Alexander, Elizabeth, Ann, and Kachel. 
He died in Smithfield, in 1805. 



Fifth Generation. 

Sons of Luke : 

1. Thomas Brodhead went from Smith- 
field to the State of New York when young; 
married Miss Livingston, of ^' Livingt'ton's 
Manor." He was a physician of great emi- 
nence, and died about 1830. Col. Thomas 
Brodhead Van Buren is his grandson. 

2. John Brodhead left Smithfield for New 
Hampshire at 18 years of age ; was a Metho- 
dist clergyman and Presiding Elder; was also 



BRODHEAD FAMILY. 247 

member of the Legislature of that State, and 
was for several years member of Congress. 
He married Mary Dodge, and had six sons 
and three daughters: Col. Daniel Dodge, of 
Boston, late Navy Agent; John Montgomery, 
Second Comptroller, Washington; Joseph 
Crawford (died recently) ; George Hamilton, 
Secretary Board of Brokers, New York; 
Thornton Fleming, Colonel of the Third 
Michigan Cavalry Kegiment, was killed in 
the second Bull Run engagement; and Josiah 
Adams, of Boston. Rev. John Brodhead 
died April 7th, 1838. 

3. Luke Brodhead married Elizabeth 
Wills, granddaughter of Col. William Wills. 
They had eight sons and one daughter. Of 
the excellence of his own parents it does 
not become the writer to speak. His father 
died in Smithfield, March 21st, 1845. His 
venerated mother is still living. 

4. Daniel Brodhead moved to Owasco, N. 
Y., and married Miss Hardenburg. He had 
three sons and three daughters: Jacob, Luke, 
and Dr. John Alexander. 

5. Alexander Brodhead moved to Hunter- 
don County, N. J., and married Miss Bloom. 
He had three sons and three daughters, 
John, Jacob, and Herbert. 



248 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Sixth Generation. 

Daughter and sons of Luke and Elizabeth 
Brodhead: Elizabeth, William Alexander, 
Thomas, Theodore, Lewis, Luke Wills, 
Horace Binnej^, De Witt Clinton, and Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 

Seventh Generation. 

1. Mary A. and William Augustus, daugh- 
ter and son of Elizabeth and Thomas J. Al- 
bright. 

2. Edward Livingston and John Davis, 
sons of William A. and Mary Brodhead. 

o. Eugene, son of Thomas and Hannah 
M. Brodhead. 

4. Harry Wills, son of Theodore and 
Emma H. Brodhead. 

5. Cicero, son of Luke AVills and Leonora 
S. Brodhead. 

6. Bella, daughter of Benjamin F. and 
Emily K. Brodhead. 

Eighth Generation. 

To this generation belong the children of 
Charles Brodhead, of Bethlehem, and those 



BRODHEAD FAMILY. 249 

of his cousins named as descendants of 
Garret, of the fourth generation ; William 
Hollinshead, of Stroudsburg, is also of this 
generation, and the children of Dr. H. R. 
Linderman, Dr. G. B. Linderman, and the 
Hon. M. M. Dimmick, of Mauch Chunk; 
Edward Pinchot, and J. Wallace, of Mil- 
ford, and Jesse R. Smith, who owns and re- 
sides upon a portion of the original purchase 
made by his great-great-great-great-great- 
grandfather, in 1737. 



Ninth Generation. 



Of this generation are the children of 
Dr. A. R. Jackson, Mrs. Jane Hollinshead, 
and the grandchildren of Hon. M. M. Dim- 
mick. 

The writer hopes to escape the charge of 
partiality, in giving so extended an account 
of the Brodhead family. It is only done 
because he happens to know most of that 
family. He will be only too glad to be able 



250 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

to give as full an account of each of the old 
families in the Minisink. 



Stroud Family, 

Jacob Stroud was born at Amwell, N. J., 
in 1735. He, with three brothers, entered 
the provincial army, and participated in the 
engagement at "Fort William Henry" and 
at the '^ Plains of Abraham," at the taking 
of Quebec, where the commanders of both 
the English and French armies, General 
Wolf and General Montcalm, lost their lives. 

Jacob Stroud, John Fish,* and Mathias 
Hutchinson,f were the three persons nearest 
General Wolf when he fell, and carried him 
behind the rocks before he expired. 

One of the Stroud brothers lost his life in 
this engagement. 

Soon after the close of the French and In- 
dian war, Jacob Stroud came to this valley, 

* John Fish was the father of Ashbel Fish and grandfather 
of fighting Abner, who lived near Stroudsburg a. few years 
ago. 

Hon. Paul S. Preston, from whom this information is de- 
rived, calls them " a giant race of men." 

f Mathias Hutchinson was an Associate Judge in Bucks 
County, previous to the Revolution. 



STROUD FAMILY. 251 

then a young man about 28 years of age. 
He purchased the property on McMichael's 
Creek, now owned by John W. Huston, of 
John McMichael, in 1769. This property is 
about two miles west of where he afterwards 
located the town of Stroudsburg. 

The first buildings erected at the latter 
place, were the large stone mansion now the 
residence of his grandson James H. Stroud; 
the frame dwelling which stood in the cen- 
tre of the town, opposite the Stroudsburg 
House, and the Fort Penn mansion on the 
site of the old fort of that name, which 
formed a part of the block damaged by the 
late freshet. Fort Penn was erected during 
the Revolution, and Fort Hamilton in 1756; 
the latter stood near the dwelling of the late 
Samuel Stokes. Jacob Stroud was a colonel 
in the Revolutionary Army, and had com- 
mand here of Fort Penn. He was a mem- 
ber of the Convention which formed the first 
Constitution of Pennsylvania, A. D. 1776. 

He married a sister of John McDowell, 
whose father came to the Minisink in com- 
pany with Nicholas Depui in 1725, and pur- 
chased the property in Cherry Valley, now 
known as Shaw's Meadows, in 1748. 



252 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Jacob Stroud raised a large, influential, 
and highly respectable family, some of the 
descendants of whom now hold honorable 
positions in the country. 

The children of Jacob Stroud w^ere : 
Hannah, who married John Starbird ; John, 
who married Elizabeth Depui ; Jane, who 
married John Bush ; Sarah, who married 
James Hollinshead ; Daniel, who married 
Elizabeth Shoemaker; Rachel, who mar- 
ried Samuel Rees ; Ann, who married Peter 
Hollinshead; Deborah, who married James 
Burson ; Elizabeth, who married William 
Colbert ; Jemima, who married Edward Bur- 
son ; and Jacob, who died young. 

Colonel Jacob Stroud died in 1806, and 
was then the owner of 4000 acres of land in 
this neighborhood. 

Daniel Stroud, son of Colonel Stroud, was, 
during his life, one of the most intelligent 
and influential men of this community. 

He laid out the town on its present liberal 
plan of broad avenues, and, in addition, en- 
joined in his deed of sale to all purchasers, 
that they should set their houses thirty feet 
back from the sidewalk. This gives to the 
residences of this beautiful town, that quiet 



STROUD FAMILY. 253 

rural air so much admired in New England 
villages. ^ 

The memory of Daniel Stroud is cherished 
by many now living in this community. 

The Hon. George M. Stroud, of Philadel- 
phia, and James H. Stroud, Esq., of Strouds- 
burg, are the surviving sons of Daniel. There 
is a large family connection, which we hope 
to trace hereafter. 

There are many interesting incidents in 
the life of Hannah, who married John Star- 
bird. She was on many accounts a most re- 
markable woman. 

Her memory was so retentive that she 
could name the birthday of all the young 
people of her acquaintance, when their pa- 
rents were married, to whom they were re- 
lated, where they were from, and when the 
family came in the country, &c. Great events, 
as well as the minor incidents of domestic 
life, were equally well remembered. When 
an aged lady she could tell the number of 
pounds of butter sold from her dairy at each 
year, for the long period her husband had 
been engaged in farming, the price at which 
it was sold and the name of each individual 

22 



254 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

purchaser, and so with regard to all the other 
products of the farm. 

Before her marriage she assisted her father 
in the store, and frequently did the buying 
of the goods as well as the selling. For this 
purpose she would ride to Philadelphia on 
horseback unattended. At that early period, 
between 1780 and 1790, much of the coun- 
try, especially between Stroudsburg and 
Easton, was an almost unbroken wilderness. 
The Revolution for the first part of the time 
was not yet ended, and prowling bands of 
Indians not unfrequent. The roads were 
rough, the streams unbridged, the forests 
long and gloomy, and the places of enter- 
tainment few and far between. 



JEarly Settlements at the Delaivare 
Water Gap. 

Long after the settlements made north of 
the mountain, the Water Gap remained a 
solitary wilderness, and the wild beasts, 
common to the primitive forest, resorted 
hither as a place of security after their other 
haunts had been invaded by the early pio- 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 255 

neers.* The Gap offered no inducement to 
the tillers of the soil, and the dark gloomy 
gorge, then overshadowed with the forest 
oaks and pines of the growth of centuries, 
was too forbidding in its aspect for the 
abode of any but those who wished to avoid 
contact with civilized men. The storv is 
told of a solitary individual inhabiting a 
hut in summer, near the Indian Ladder, in 
which he coined money from metals pro- 
cured in some cavern in the mountain, and 
in winter lived in a palatial residence with 
his family in a remote city. 

An Indian trail wound along the base of 
the mountain through the gorge on either 
side of the river, and an occasional eques- 
trian managed to lead his horse over the 
Indian path. 

In the year 1730, the government of the 
province of Pennsylvania sent up agents to 
the Minisink, to dispossess certain persons 
of lands, held by purchase of the Indians. 
This party, it is said, managed with great 

* An old and respectable citizen of the neighborhood re- 
members, when a boy, to have seen a herd of deer, five in 
number, feeding in what is now the lawn in front of the 
Kittatinny House. 



256 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

difficulty to lead their horses through the 
Gap. At a later period, in 1743, as has been 
stated elsewhere, the Rev. David Brainerd, 
in a missionary tour amongst the Indians in 
the Minisink, did not, it appears, consider 
the passage practicable. 

It was not until the year 1800, that the 
construction of a wagon-road was under- 
taken, and then by individual subscriptions 
on the part of those residing above and below 
the mountain. 

About this time, a small log house was 
erected by some daring adventurer, within 
a few feet of Avhere the Kittatinny House 
now stands. For a time, — about the year 
1808, and for some years after, — there lived 
in this house of two rooms and an attic, a 
tall, white-haired, 'dignified-looking man, 
with wife and daughter of corresponding 
gentility. 'The interior of the rude dwell- 
ing had an air of refinement, and its inmates 
bore evidence of having seen more pi^os- 
perous days. The costly furniture, gilded 
mirrors, and a well-stocked library, con- 
trasted strangely w4th the simple abode and 
its wild surroundino:s ; and marvellous, in- 
deed, were the tales passing current for a 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 257 

time with the rustic youth of the neighbor- 
hood of the wonderful wealth and mys- 
terious doings of its isolated inhabitants. 
The master occu23ant of this establishment 
was none other than the notorious Alex- 
ander Patterson. 

In the year 1793, there came to the Water 
Gap from St. Domingo a Frenchman named 
Anthony Dutot, having left there hastily 
with others, at the time when the order of 
possession on that island was reversed, when 
the servants became the masters of the soil, 
and the masters became fugitives. He was 
said to be wealthy, and buried on his plan- 
tation a considerable amount of gold and 
silver, and brought with him what coin he 
could conveniently transport. Mr. Dutot 
was a man of some degree of culture and 
refinement, and after spending a short time 
in Philadelphia, he proceeded up the Dela- 
ware in search of a future home. He was 
impressed with the grandeur of the scenery 
at the Delaware Water Gap, and eagerly 
made purchase of a large tract of land, pre- 
viously considered as w^orthless, including 
the portion on which the Kittatinny House 
is situated, and the hills on the north side 

22* 



258 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

of the mountain where the village is located. 
At the latter place he laid out a city and 
called it after his own name, and, like the 
founder of the Roman commonwealth, chose 
for its location the hills overlooking the 
plain. In the centre of the plot, around 
which he built a dozen or more small dwell- 
ings, he left a large triangular lot for a mar- 
ket-place. The " city " has never grown, 
however, to the proportions of more than a 
hamlet. The name has been changed to 
Delaware Water Gap, and the buildings erect- 
ed by Mr. Dutot have long since disappeared, 
and others more substantial have taken their 
place ; but the market-grounds still remain 
uninvaded. 

The first wagon-road through the Gap 
passed round the east end of the inclosure 
in front of the Kittatinny House, and over 
Sunset Hill, intersecting the present road 
near the Church of the Mountain. Soon 
after the buikling of this road, Mr. Dutot 
obtained a charter for a toll-road, extending 
from the foot of the hill along the bank of 
the river, w here the railroad now passes, to 
the village. He lived at this time in a house 
which stood near the old saw-mill, and there 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 259 

the " gate " was located. The toll-road was 
never profitable, and caused him much an- 
noyance. Various devices were resorted to, 
on the part of travellers, to avoid payment, 
sometimes by driving rapidly through the 
gateway, and at others by pretending not to 
understand his meaning. Mr. Dutot never 
learned to speak the English language cor- 
rectly, and his courteous demand for '•' von 
leetle toU,^^ accompanied with a polite bow, 
was pretended to be understood for the usual 
salutation at parting, and a polite "good 
day, sir," with an equally profound bow on 
the part of the delinquent traveller, was 
usually the only compensation received, un- 
til he was obliged, at length, to resort to 
harsher measures. The toll-road was super- 
seded in 1823 by the construction of the 
present state road, along the southeastern 
slope of Sunset Hill. 

Mr. Dutot built the saw-mill upon the 
foundation now to be seen at the boat-land- 
ing, and it was continued in use till burned 
by sparks from a locomotive soon after the 
opening of the railroad. 

In the year 1829, he commenced the erec- 
tion of a small portion of what is now the 



260 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

Kittatinny House, but unfortunately failed 
in business before its completion. 

He had made an injudicious use of his 
funds, and among other non-paying enter- 
prises, spent large sums of money in making 
excavations in the mountain in search of 
minerals. He had also a number of ex- 
pensive lawsuits with his neighbor, Ulrick 
Hauser. 

Mr. Hauser resided on the property now 
known as the " River Farm," owned by Mr. 
Evan T. Croasdale. He was a German, and 
came to the country a few years previous to 
the arrival of Mr. Dutot. 

It is said they seldom met without dis- 
puting, but how they managed to quarrel, 
when neither understood the other's lan- 
guage, is not easily explained. That there 
was a misunderstmiding is quite evident, and 
that unfortunate condition of things seems 
to have continued after both began to be 
understood in the same dialect, for we find 
in later years that Mr. Dutot was indicted 
by the grand jury at Easton for an assault 
and battery on the person of Mr. Hauser. 

The version given of the affair by Mr. 
Dutot before the court, as far as remem- 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 261 

bered, is as follows: '^Mr. Hause, he von 
grand what you call him — he no tell ze true; 
he call my little ceete Hard Scrah (Hard 
Scrabble) ; then I say, 'Zounds, Mr. Hause, 
you be von Hard Scrab yourself;' then Mr. 
Hause, he put his fist in his hand and strike 
me; then I lift my foot and I strike Mr. 
Hause." 

Soon after Mr. Dutot's settlement here, he 
made selection of Sunset Hill as his last 
resting-place, and some twenty years before 
his death, purchased a bell and cannon, the 
former to be rung from the belfry of his own 
house, on which it was erected, and the lat- 
ter to be fired from his grave when certain 
events transpired, affecting the prosperity of 
the place, which he predicted would occur. 
Among tlie incidents remembered were the 
completion of a railroad through the Gap, 
and the landing of a steamboat at the wharf 
he had made selection of on the bank of the 
Delaware. He died in 1841, and fifteen 
years after, the whistle of the locomotive 
was fir«t heard echoing in the gorge of the 
mountain, but the old gentleman's repose 
was undisturbed by the ringing of bell or 



262 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

the firing of cannon over liis solitary and 
neglected grave. 

The cannon long since exploded in salut- 
ing the dawn of a national anniversary from 
the summit of Mount Caroline. But the 
old bell is this morning pealing, in unaltered 
tone, from the belfry of the old stone semi- 
nary at Stroudsburg, summoning the reluc- 
tant girls and boys of a third generation. 



First Visitors, 

The first visitors at the Delaware Gap 
remembered were from Philadelphia, and 
about the year 1820. At that time there 
was no building on the present site, except- 
ing the hut heretofore alluded to. 

Primitive forest trees then studded the 
lawn, and an occasional traveller, who 
wished to evade the payment of toll on Mr. 
Du tot's better road along the river-bank, 
passed by Mr. Patterson's solitary abode. 

These first visitors sojourned at the home 
of the writer's father in the village, and the 
names of Horace Binney and Caleb Cope 
are among those remembered by his mother. 



FIRST VISITORS. 263 

In 1832, Samuel Snyder purchased the 
property, with the view of making it a place 
of resort ; and to his memory the credit is 
/due of bringing it into public notice, and for 
giving the Kittatinny House a character for 
neatness, cleanliness, and comfort, that has 
required much effort on the part of his suc- 
cessors to maintain. Mr. Snyder moved here 
in the spring of 1833, and enlarged and 
completed the building commenced by Mr. 
Dutot. The house then accommodated about 
twenty-five persons, and was filled the same 
summer, and before it was fairly furnished. 
Among the first guests were Mrs. Swift, Miss 
Coffman, Caleb Cope and family, and Gen- 
eral Cadwalader. 

William A. Brodhead rented the Kitta- 
tinny House, and moved here in 1841. In 
1851, he purchased, and increased its capa- 
city to accommodate sixty persons. In 1853, 
it was again increased to seventy-five. In 
1860, to one hundred and fifty. In 1862, 
to one hundred and seventy-five; and in 
1866, to two hundred and fifty. 



264 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 



Diu^Jiam Boats. 

Long before any facilities, other than the 
rough wagon-roads of the times, were afforded 
the people, both north and south of the moun- 
tain, for the transportation of the products 
of the Yalley of the Delaware to market, the 
old Furnace at Durham, on the Delaw^are, a 
few miles below Easton, had constructed, 
about the year 1750, a class of boats, some- 
what longer and narrower than the present 
canal-boats, and in shape resembling a weav- 
er's shuttle. The deck extended a few feet 
only from stem and stern. The "captain," 
or steersman, stood on the stern-deck, and 
guided the boat with a long rudder. A nar- 
row planking on either side afforded the 
walking-place for the pikemen, who with 
long poles or pikes propelled the boat up the 
current. 

These were called Durham boats, and 
soon came into general use on the Delaware. 

They were used as early as 1758, by John 
Van Campen, for the transportation of flour 
to Philadelphia, manufactured from wheat 
grown in the Minisink. Mr. Yan Campen's 



DURHAM BOATS. 265 

mill was at Shawnee, and stood near where 
Mr. Wilson's mill is now located. 

" In 1786, one Jesse Dickinson came from 
Philadelphia, and laid out a city in Dela- 
ware County, New York, called ' Dickinson 
City.' It was situated near what is now 
called Cannonsville. Mr. Dickinson brought 
his men and building materials up the Dela- 
ware in Durham boats. '"^' 

The old firm of Bell & Thomas at Ex- 
periment Mills, known for their energy and 
integrity, and pleasantly remembered by 
many still living, used the Durham boats 
extensively in their day, both in the trans- 
portation of flour to Philadelphia, and in 
bringing up supplies for the neighborhood. 

The semi-monthly arrival of these boats 
at "Armat's Landing," in those days, was 
an event of much greater interest to the 
people of the neighborhood than the landing 
of a steamer from Europe is to the citizens 
of Philadelphia, at the present day. 

The boatmen were a strong, hardy set of 
men, and seemed to enjoy their laborious 
occupation. The " captain," feeling the re- 

■^ Gould's History of Dela\,are County. 
23 



266 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

sponsibility of his position, bore himself with 
great dignity, especially on his arrival at 
" port ;" and the boys who collected about 
the wharf when the vessel hove in sight, 
were terror-stricken at the imperious man- 
ner of the captain, and the stentorian tones 
by which he commanded all alike, on board 
and on shore. 

After the completion of the Delaware di- 
vision of the Pennsylvania Canal, the Dur- 
ham boats began gradually to disappear, so 
that now one is seldom seen on the waters 
of the Delaware. 



Steamboat ^^ Alfred TJiomasJ^ 

Mr. Dutot's prediction in reference to 
steamboat navigation on the upper waters 
of the Delaware is not yet verified. 

The attempt, however, has been made, 
and but for the unjbrtunate occurrence at- 
tending the first effort, we should now have 
the pleasure of one of the finest excursions 
to be enjoyed on any river in the States, 
between Belvidere and Port Jervis. 

An act of incorporation was granted in 



STEAMBOAT "ALFRED THOMAS." 267 

1860 to the '' Kittatinny Improvement Com- 
pany," with power to improve the naviga- 
tion of the Delaware River, and '^ to run one 
or more boats propelled by steam or caloric 
engines, or otherwise, with such appurte- 
nances and equipments as may be deemed 
adequate, &c., between the head of Foul 
Rift and the village of Matamoras." 

After considerable money was expended 
on the most difficult portions of the river, 
an experienced committee was appointed, 
who, after examination, pronounced the nav- 
igation between the points named, entirely 
practicable. 

A steamboat was accordingly built at 
Easton in the winter and spring of 1860, 
called the '^ Alfred Thomas," of the following 
dimensions: fourteen feet in width, eighty- 
five feet in length, and of one hundred tons 
burden, and on the 6th of March of that 
year, was ready for the previously-arranged 
excursion. 

" On the morning of the 6th of March, 
1860, with a beautiful Union flag flying 
from her upper deck, and with about one 
hundred persons on board, including the 
proprietors, and a number of other gentle- 



268 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

men from Belvidere, she steamed off from 
the boat-yard, where she had lain so long, 
and passed down the Lehigh to the bosom 
of the Delaware, where she was destined. 
Crowds of people lined the shores of the 
river, watching her appearance, and a beau- 
tiful sight was presented as the gallant little 
boat ploughed her way up the stream, while 
crowds on the shore, as well as those on 
board, cheered heartily. 

"At the bridge, which she reached at 
noon, the steamer stopped, when all but 
about thirty on board got off, the remainder 
intending to go to Belvidere, where the boat 
was expected shortly to arrive, and where 
numbers of citizens were waiting with joy- 
ful anticipations. . . . 

'^ The day was, indeed, a most beautiful 
one, and the navigation of the upper Dela- 
ware by steam seemed truly to have an au- 
spicious beginning ; but, one short hour suf- 
ficed to bring about the sad change. The 
engineer ran the pressure of steam up to 
one hundred and twenty-five pounds to the 
square inch, when it should not have ex- 
ceeded eighty, — the consequence of which 
was the explosion of the boiler, and the 



FIRST TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGE TO WATER GAP. 269 

most appalling calamity that has ever oc- 
curred in this place was witnessed."* 

Thirteen of the number on board were 
killed, or died soon after, and several were 
more or less seriously injured. Among the 
former were Judge William R. Sharp and 
Richard Holcomb, who, with Alfred Tho- 
mas, were the original projectors of the en- 
terprise. 



First Telegraphic Message to the Dela- 
ware Water Gap, 

Message No. 1. 

Easton, July lltli, 1855, 9 o'clock a. m. 

'^ To the ladies and gentlemen now at the 
Kittatinny House : 

^'The Easton office takes pleasure in be- 
ing the medium of congratulation to you on 
the part of the citizens of Easton upon the 
completion of the lightning line to the 'Gap.' 
We are no longer separated by time or 
space ; and we heartily and most cordially 
salute your introduction into the great mag- 

* Keporter of the Easton Daily Express. 
23* 



270 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

netic circle, which now includes almost the 
entire civilized world. Our compliments to 
the beauty and manly gallantry of the pic- 
turesque Gap'' 

" J. L. Mingle." 



Railroads. 

The Delaware Water Gap is reached from 
Philadelphia by the Philadelphia and Tren- 
ton Railroad, and Belvidere, Delaware, and 
Flemington Railroad to Manunka Chimk* 
and from thence by the Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna, and Western Railroad. From New 
York by the " Central, of New Jersey," to 
New Hampton, and thence by the Warren 
and the Delaware, Lackawanna, and West- 
ern. The last-named road passes through 
the gorge of the mountain and along the 
bank of the river at the base of the cliff on 
which the Hotel is situated. It runs at near- 
ly right angles with the Delaware soon after 
leaving the station at this place, and follows 

* The Indian name of the range of hills terminating at the 
station was Penungauchung, and it is to be regretted that it 
was not preserved in naming this station. 



RAILROADS. 271 

up the windings of Brodhead's Creek, some 
ten miles, thence through a wild, picturesque 
country, for nearly the whole distance, to 
Scranton. When on the summit of the Po- 
cono Mountain, which is gained by a rapidly 
ascending grade from the river, a view is 
afforded of great extent, variety, and beauty, 
and is worth a journey over the road to wit- 
ness. 

A wilderness of vast extent, covering 
thousands of acres between the Pocono and 
Blue Ridge, lies before you ; and, deep be- 
low you, a valley of hills, a grand foreground 
to the wonderful, inimitable picture Nature 
has wrought, with the deep mountain gorge 
in distant perspective. 

This view is obtained immediately after 
you pass through the tunnel on the point of 
the mountain, and by an intimation to either 
of the gentlemanly conductors on this road, 
you will be afforded facilities for witnessing 
it, that, perhaps, would not otherwise be ob- 
tained. 

The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western 
Eailroad was completed in 1855, at a cost, 
including equipments, of over 12,000,000 
dollars. The total length from Great Bend 



272 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

to the Delaware River is one hundred and 
thirteen miles. It was a work of great mag- 
nitude, and is a monument to the enterprise 
and perseverance of its original projectors. 

The Belvidere, Delaware and Flemington 
Eailroad passes for the whole distance, from 
Trenton to Manunka Chunk, along the bank 
of the Delaware River, " and one's eves sel- 
dom look upon a more enchanting series of 
landscapes than stretches along this river, 
in one long and varied line of beauty, from 
New Hope and the Nockamixon Rocks to 
the Delaware Water Gap." 

This road possesses the reputation of ad- 
mirable management, of which its cleanly 
and comfortable passenger cars give good 
evidence. 



EXTRACT OF A LETTER OF M. R. HULCE, ESQ. 273 



Bxtract fro^n a Letter of 31. It. 
Mulce^ Esq. 

My dear Sir : Lake " Utsayantha '' is near the 
bead of the main or Mohawk branch of the Dela- 
ware River (sometimes called the west branch), and 
is situated partly in Delaware and partly in Scho- 
harie Counties, the line of the counties running 
through it. Its outlet is in the town of Harpers- 
field, and in a map of 1779 is named Ustayantha. 
The lake is clear as crystal and circular in form, 
and contains, I should judge, about 60 or 70 acres. 
It is above tide-water, 1888 feet. 

The Cochecton Valley was first settled by white 
men from Connecticut, in 1757. In 1762, there 
were thirty houses, one sawmill, one grist mill, and 
a blockhouse, or wooden fort. Daniel Skinner ran 
the first raft from Cochecton, soon after the close 
of the old French War, or between 1760 and 1770, 
with Josiah Parks as fore-hand. 

The Delaware rises on the western slope of the 
Catskill. Mount Prospect, a mile or two southeast 
of its source, rises about 1500 feet higher, and from 
its summit, Albany, some 70 miles distant, can be 
plainly seen on a clear day. Your beautiful and 
picturesque home and delightful summer resort is 
nestled in one of the gorges of the oldest of earth's 
upheavals. Long before the snow-clad Alps or the 
Rocky Mountains emerged from their ocean beds, 
and before the carboniferous period, the crests of 



274 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

the Kittatinny pierced the clouds, while their sides 
were laved by the vast expanse of waters whence 
they had risen when " the mountains were brought 
forth." 

The i^rand scenery of our noble Delaware, for 
the first two hundred miles, as it hugs the north- 
western slopes of this Titanic range, seeking an 
outlet, well repays a visit on a raft. It is evident 
that for ages a barrier existed at your place, which 
dammed back the river, perhaps one hundred 
miles. Whether the " Gap " was made by the slow 
action of the waters over a fall like Niagara, or by 
some earthquake convulsion, it is difficult to deter- 
mine. The draining of the waters left the valley 
of the Minisink, as it now exists, a rich garden. 
This valley was settled by the Dutch, about one 
hundred years before Penn founded Philadelphia. 
A road was built from "Sopies" (now Kingston) 
into the valley, the remains of which are still to be 
seen. It was called " The Mine Eoad," having been 
constructed to reach some copper and other mines 
in the vicinity. 

Yours, truly, 

M. R. HuLCE. 



Extract from a Letter of C. L. 
I*ascalf Esq, 

My dear Sir: It affords me much pleasure to 
comply with your request for the particulars in 
regard to the naming of Caldcno Falls. 



EXTRACT OF A LETTER OF C. L. PASCAL, ESQ. 275 

In August, 1851, while on a visit to the Gap, it 
was my pleasure to make the acquaintance of Mr. 
Charles S. Ogden, of Philadelphia, a very pleasant 
and agreeable young man, and one quite as fond 
of rambling over the mountains as myself. 

One day, after climbing to the top of the Jersey 
Mountain, we observed a charming little stream of 
water, and followed it down to the river below, 
rich in its falls, basins, troughs, and mossy grottos. 

After dinner, while recounting the many beau- 
ties of this stream, and particularly its falls, to our 
host, your amiable brother William, he informed 
us that the beauty of stream and falls back on the 
Pennsylvania Mountain, far surpassed any we had 
seen. Not feeling inclined to doubt him, and anxi- 
ous to see all the beauties of the Gap, we started 
eagerly in pursuit of it. 

A Mr. McLeod accompanied us up the long steps, 
over the old mountain road, across the meadow, 
and up the steep cliff on the right, to the top of an 
extended flat rock, which inclined down to a con- 
tinuous line of thicket, indicating the course of a 
stream leading towards the hotel, until we heard 
the thrilling music of falling water. 

The scene was perfect. The grand old trees 
formed an arch above us, and as their branches 
were swayed by the breeze, bright patches of sun- 
light darted across the falling water. 

Then it was suggested by one of the party that 
we should name the fall, and direct the attention 
of visitors to a spot so beautiful and so secluded. 

Many names were proposed and rejected; finally 



276 DELAWARE WATER GAP. 

we concluded to form a new name out of syllables 
taken from our own, thus, " Cal " from Pas-cal; 
" den '' from Og-den ; and " o " from McLe-o-d. 
In this way, Cal-den-o Falls received its name. 

Having refreshed ourselves, we climbed again 
to the top of the fall, then a little further on, we 
found a spot almost rivalling in its beauty the one 
we had just left. 

Here we sat down and drank of the cold running 
stream, and were grateful to 3'our brother for add- 
ing so much pleasure to our visit to the Water 
Gap. 

And now, my good friend, I thank jon for draw- 
ing my thoughts back over the years that have 
elapsed since Cal-den-o Falls was first known to 
me in all the wildness and grandeur it then pos- 
sessed. 

With great respect, I am, dear sir. 

Your obedient servant, 

Charles L. Pascal. 

Philadelphia, April 4th, 1870. 



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